🟠 News Club - Sudan, 10 months on

With some major conflicts across the world, it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle. One example: the ongoing civil war in Sudan, which has been running for over 2 years but struggles to get the media’s attention, at least here in Australia.

Sudan, 10 months on

When I wrote a News Club newsletter about the civil war and impending famine in Sudan last year, we received lots of feedback that it was the first time many Squizers had heard of the cluster disaster going on there. It remains on my news grazing list, but with wars in Ukraine and the Middle East absorbing attention, I’ve often had to seek it out. 

I’ve decided to bring it to the fore again this week because I’ve been interested to see others observe that Sudan’s conflict rarely gets a mention while being bigger in scale than both those wars.

So if you’re thinking ‘I think I remember something about this…’ - let me help. 

Sudan is experiencing a devastating civil war that began in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). It stems from a power struggle between military leaders following the 2021 coup that derailed Sudan's democratic transition and is now focused on RSF forces trying to eliminate or displace non-Arab African populations in Sudan’s Darfur region. 

So far, more than 150,000 people have died, 14 million are displaced, and 30 million need humanitarian aid. Disease outbreaks, including cholera, are spreading. And there’s no end in sight…

So this week’s Club Picks are aimed at giving you a better understanding of what's been happening in a war that, by most measures, has become the world's largest humanitarian crisis.

1. The BBC has updated its Sudan explainer with the latest on this brutal civil war between two former allies - army chief General al-Burhan (SAF) and his ex-deputy Hemedti (RSF). It’s got the background on the battle for territory - including SAF’s retaking of the capital Khartoum in March - and the RFS’s siege of the city of el-Fasher in Darfur, where 300,000 people are facing starvation. 

2. Near el-Fasher is a vast displacement camp called Zamzam. In mid-April, RFS soldiers attacked the camp, killing an estimated 1,500 people and kidnapping a large number of women. It’s what experts say is one of the worst war crimes of the conflict. This weekend, a Guardian investigation looked at the deliberate targeting of a young nurse named Hanadi Dawood, who had become a symbol of resistance

3. So why haven't we heard more about it? Henry Ergas asks that uncomfortable question in a recent op-ed in The Australian (paywall). He notes that in one recent month, the ABC website had more than 9,000 hits for news around Gaza but not one for ‘Sudan’. His provocative piece argues we've created a hierarchy of suffering: "Despite claims that 'all lives matter', some tragedies are so much worthier of our attention."

I'm not suggesting we should care less about any other war/crisis - just that our capacity for attention seems to be finite. It’s nothing new - I’ve always been intrigued by why some stories go big, while others barely register.

Like we always do at the Squiz, we’ll do our best to elevate the stories worth your attention.