Sudan’s hell of devastation and despair

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are stalking Sudan: brutal civil conflict, widespread devastation, humanitarian disasters, and the displacement of millions of refugees.

- John J Metzler

Now add the Fifth Horseman, the darkness of global indifference.

In a riveting statement concerning one of the world’s biggest conflicts, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres commented, “Two years into a devastating war, Sudan remains in a crisis of staggering proportions, with civilians paying the highest price.” He added caustically, ‘Almost 12 million people have fled their homes, in what has become the world’s largest displacement crisis. More than 3.8 million of these have crossed into neighbouring countries.”

In fact, more than 30 million people, half the population, require humanitarian support. At least 150,000 civilians have been killed in the fighting. Moreover, the violence has equally targeted humanitarian aid workers.

A dire warning by the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva adds:

“We have seen over the past two years an insidious pattern of dehumanisation in how war is being carried out. Civilians are killed and injured, their homes looted, and their livelihoods destroyed. Sexual violence is rampant and seeding trauma that will reverberate for generations!”

A huge but arid land more than twice the size of Texas, Sudan remains a largely Muslim country which has been plagued by endemic ethnic violence, instability and poverty.