Genocide In Shadow Of The Nile

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The world remains silent as Sudan bleeds. Babies are raped, mothers are buried alive, and fathers are beheaded. Villages vanish overnight, and generations disappear before they can even speak their names.
Is the silence of the world because the victims are black? Because their lives do not fit the global definition of tragedy?
Where is the flotilla that once sailed for Palestine? Where is the solidarity that once shook the streets in protest? Where are the Arab leaders who speak of brotherhood but look away when Africa burns? And does Malaysia even care?
Sudan is burning. Once a proud Muslim nation on African soil, it is now torn apart by war between two generals who once stood on the same side.
Since April 2023, the Sudanese Armed Forces led by Abdel Fattah al‑Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces commanded by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, or Hemedti, have plunged the country into chaos.
What began as a struggle for influence after they jointly overthrew a civilian government has become one of the worst humanitarian disasters of the century.
Mohamed Hamdan DagaloThe Sudanese Armed Forces represent the state. The Rapid Support Forces, born from the Janjaweed militia of Darfur, now act as a state within a state.
Their rivalry has reduced entire cities to rubble. In Khartoum, explosions echo through deserted streets. The call to prayer has been replaced by the sound of artillery. In Darfur, what was once a centre of culture is now a wasteland of fear.
Mass graves, sexual violence, systematic killings
According to the United Nations, more than 10 million Sudanese have fled their homes, the largest displacement crisis in the world today.
Twenty‑five million people now depend on humanitarian aid that rarely reaches them. Fourteen million of them are children. Food is scarce, water is contaminated, and hospitals no longer function. Thousands have been killed, though the real number is likely far higher.
In West Darfur, ethnic cleansing is being carried out against the Masalit community. Human Rights Watch confirms the systematic killing of civilians, widespread sexual violence, and the forced displacement of entire populations.
El Geneina, once a refuge, is now a mass grave. Those who tried to cross into Chad were shot. Homes were burned. Bodies lie unburied in the sand.
The Sudanese Armed Forces respond with airstrikes that destroy what remains. Schools, hospitals, and mosques collapse under the weight of bombs.
Both sides speak the language of patriotism while committing crimes against the very people they claim to defend.
Khartoum lies in ruins. The bridges that once united its people now divide two armies. The Nile, once the river of life, now separates the dead.
The government clings to power from Port Sudan on the Red Sea, while the RSF holds most of Darfur. The map shifts daily, but one fact remains unchanged: civilians pay the price.
When El‑Fasher fell to the RSF in 2025, the war reached its darkest point. For 18 months, the city was surrounded. Food, medicine, and water were blocked.
When government forces finally withdrew, the RSF entered not as liberators but as conquerors. Houses were looted, women were dragged into the streets, and men were executed in front of their families.
CNN called it the most violent episode in Sudan’s modern history. The BBC warned that genocide was no longer a possibility but a reality.
To understand Sudan’s collapse, one must look deeper than the present. The roots of this war stretch back to 2003, when the Janjaweed militia, under government command, slaughtered hundreds of thousands in Darfur.
That same force was later reorganised into the Rapid Support Forces, inheriting both weapons and hatred. The world ignored the warning then, and now the wound has reopened.
Human Rights Watch estimates that more than 15,000 civilians have been killed in Darfur since 2023, while tens of thousands more remain missing.
The United Nations calls it the African Srebrenica. In El‑Fasher alone, over 2,000 civilians were executed within days.
Dead silence
The air is thick with the smell of burning homes and decay, but thicker still is the silence of the world. There are no emergency sessions at the UN, no mass protests, no candlelight vigils.
International organisations have traced foreign weapons on both sides. Investigators found Chinese rifles, French systems, and armoured vehicles made in the United Arab Emirates.
Reports from the Atlantic Council and Reuters mention foreign financing and arms networks that feed the conflict.
The Sudanese government has even severed ties with the UAE, accusing it of complicity in war crimes. The International Court of Justice dismissed the case for lack of jurisdiction.
The world moved on, and Sudan was left to bury its dead.
Sudan’s war is not only about power. It is about gold, ports, and influence. Darfur’s gold mines are among the richest in Africa, and whoever controls them controls access to billions. The RSF now holds most of those mines.
Sudan sits on the Red Sea, one of the world’s most strategic maritime corridors. To control Sudan is to control a bridge between Africa and the Middle East. This is not a local conflict. It is a contest of global ambition.
The humanitarian toll is staggering. Fourteen million Sudanese have become refugees. Millions more remain trapped between front lines, surviving without food or clean water.
The World Health Organization warns that famine and disease could soon claim more lives than bullets. Children die from hunger before they can even be counted.
In June 2024, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 2736, demanding that the RSF lift its siege on El‑Fasher. It was a small victory for diplomacy, but it came too late for thousands already dead.
Ceasefires are declared, then broken. Aid convoys are blocked. Humanitarian workers are killed. Both sides weaponise hunger, while the world debates wording in air‑conditioned rooms.
The hypocrisy is unbearable. When wars erupt in Europe or the Middle East, the world rushes to act. When black bodies fall in Africa, the cameras turn away.
The same leaders who lecture about human rights now watch in silence. The same institutions that claim to defend justice remain motionless as Sudan collapses.
This is not neutrality. It is abandonment.
Every photograph from Sudan tells a story the world refuses to read: a mother shielding her child under gunfire, a family walking barefoot across the desert, a man whispering prayers over the graves of his neighbours.
They are not soldiers. They are human beings forgotten by humanity itself.
Sudan is not only a war zone. It is a mirror reflecting who we have become. It reveals a world that measures compassion by geography, empathy by skin colour, and justice by convenience.
When Gaza burns, there are marches. When Ukraine falls, there are sanctions. When Sudan screams, there is silence.
The question is not only what will become of Sudan. The question is what will become of us if this silence continues.
Where is humanity when Sudan burns? - Mkini
MAHATHIR MOHD RAIS is a former Federal Territories Bersatu and Perikatan Nasional secretary. He is now a PKR member.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.

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