Sudan’s Srebrenica Moment

Consider, for example, Zamzam, a camp for internally displaced people near El Fasher in North Darfur. In April, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – a powerful paramilitary group – launched a brutal attack on the camp, shelling, shooting, and raping civilians. More than 400 people were murdered, including the entire staff of Zamzam’s only remaining operational medical clinic.

The RSF also razed Zamzam’s market and set much of the camp on fire. At least 400,000 survivors fled, though the actual number may be far higher. More than 100,000 people remained trapped inside the camp, lacking the most basic of services. They continue to be subjected to lethal attacks and other abuses at the hands of the RSF. Many are feared dead. At the same time as their assault on Zamzam, RSF fighters were attacking the nearby Abu Shouk camp, killing dozens and displacing many more.

For those fleeing Zamzam, the horror was not over; the RSF ambushed civilians trying to escape. Weakened by famine and extreme heat, some collapsed from hunger and dehydration before reaching Tawila – about 30 miles away – where even basic aid was scarce. In total, thousands of people likely died.

This massacre is one of the darkest episodes in Sudan’s ongoing civil war. Though no accurate nationwide death toll exists, our contacts on the ground estimate that hundreds of thousands of people have been killed or succumbed to war-related starvation, malnutrition, and disease.

The war in Sudan began two years ago as a power struggle between the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces. But the RSF soon turned its guns on civilians across central Sudan and Darfur – especially members of the Masalit, Fur, Zaghawa, and other non-Arab tribal groups – reviving the genocidal campaign waged by its predecessor, the Janjaweed, a militia backed by former dictator Omar al-Bashir. In this sense, what is unfolding in parts of Sudan is not a new conflict; it is a continuation of the Darfur genocide that began in 2003 and was never fully confronted or resolved.

The question facing the world today is whether Zamzam will become Sudan’s Srebrenica moment – a massacre that finally compels international action – or whether it will join Rwanda, Gaza, and so many other sites of atrocities that triggered global outrage but no meaningful intervention.

Critically, the Zamzam massacre is only the latest in a growing string of mass atrocities across Sudan, including El Geneina in West Darfur and Al Hilaliya and Wad al-Noura in the central state of Gezira. Zamzam can – and must – be the last. But to make that happen, the international community must finally intervene.

Together, we have extensive personal and professional experience with the crisis in Sudan through our legal and policy work, human rights advocacy, and direct engagement with affected communities. One of us, Ibrahim Alduma, is a Sudanese human rights activist from Darfur who has documented RSF atrocities, including horrific attacks in which Masalit civilians were burned alive near El Geneina. Our message is simple: global leaders must trust Sudanese civil society and provide it with the resources and political support it urgently needs.

Sudan is full of experienced organizers and frontline responders who, given the means to act, are ready to do so. For example, the 20 women who comprised Team Zamzam counseled survivors of sexual violence and cared for the camp’s most vulnerable residents. Though now displaced themselves, they are determined to resume their work.

Or consider the neighborhood resistance committees that helped topple al-Bashir, and the more recent Nobel Peace Prize-nominated Emergency Response Rooms. These volunteer networks run community kitchens, evacuate civilians, repair infrastructure, and build shelters – often at great personal risk. Yet despite their effectiveness and dedication, they receive less than 1% of international humanitarian funding.

That must change. To reach everyone in need, humanitarian aid must be scaled up and channeled through trusted local organizations. Aid agencies should be able to operate without interference from armed groups. Where insecurity prevents overland delivery – particularly in El Fasher and across Darfur – the United Nations and other international actors should immediately initiate sustained humanitarian airdrops.

One urgent priority is confronting the external powers fueling this war. Chief among them is the United Arab Emirates, which has done more than any other country to enable the RSF’s atrocities and continues to arm and support the group. The international community and the private sector must treat the UAE as a pariah state: halt all weapons sales, sever security ties, and end business partnerships like the one between Abu Dhabi and America’s National Basketball Association. Artists should refuse to perform there, and investors should shun a regime that is facilitating genocide.

Governments and courts must hold all those responsible for the war’s enormous crimes fully accountable, both legally and politically. The Janjaweed and Sudanese military leaders were never held accountable for the original Darfur genocide – and we now see the consequences.

Diplomacy must also change course. Peace talks have centered on the war’s architects, rather than on Sudan’s civil society and grassroots leaders whose vision of peace is rooted in dignity, justice, and accountability.

Even as Sudan is home to monstrous crimes against humanity, it is also home to the very best of humanity. Look to the resistance committees, the Emergency Response Rooms, and Team Zamzam. Look to aid workers who refuse to abandon the Sudanese people amid the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Look to organizations like the Mutual Aid Sudan Coalition, the Sudanese American Physicians Association, Darfur Women Action Group, and the Sudan Solidarity Collective, and to members of Sudan’s diaspora who give all they can and refuse to let the world look away. And look to the mothers who walk for days without food, risking death or sexual violence to save their children.

Their efforts have saved countless lives, but their resilience is not limitless. Will we stand with them? If we stand by as they die, a piece of our own humanity will die with them.

Spource: Opinion Project-Syndicate