The world's largest humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Sudan
Children are dying every day. Yet there's no sense of urgency from world's richest countries, especially the US.
REUTERS
Hello ... it’s Patriots Day and the 130th running of the Boston Marathon. The men’s race winner, John Korir of Kenya, set a course record of 2 hours, 1 minute, and 52 seconds. The world record is held by the late Kelvin Kiptum of Kenya, who ran the Chicago Marathon three years ago in 2 hours and 35 seconds. A sub-2 hour marathon is on the horizon.
So we thought Pete Kegsbreath was the one with the drinking problem, then we figured Kristi Noem had to be drunk to shoot and kill the family’s puppy, then AG Pam Bondi showed up at a congressional hearing about the Epstein files sounding inebriated (“The Dow is over 50,000 right now!!!”), and then spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt started looking like she had the DTs when she applied her lipstick, but lo and behold, it’s FBI director Kash Patel who reportedly gets so blotto so often that he doesn’t show up to meetings or cancels them for no sober reason and passes out so cold that his aides can’t rouse him and ordered a battering ram in case they have to break down a door to splash cold water on his face and pour coffee down his throat. (Read The Atlantic’s stunning report with this gift link. Patel filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit against The Atlantic today. Good luck with that.)
Meanwhile, the Orange Menace who thinks he’s the Orange Jesus is picking fights with the pope. The vicar of Christ vs. the antichrist. The bishop vs. the beast. I think we all know who wins that battle.
With all the brouhaha over the Iran war and the daily chaos spewing out of this White House, it’s easy to be overwhelmed (more on this from a sociologist later). So today let’s focus on one critically important thing: The world’s greatest humanitarian crisis that’s unfolding in Sudan.
It’s the only country in the world where famine, as defined by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), is ongoing in several areas. There are far too many places where hunger is widespread: Haiti, Yemen, Kenya, Somalia, Pakistan, and Gaza, to name just a few.
And in most places, the biggest culprit is armed violence: Men fighting each other in a desperate struggle for power.
That’s certainly the case in Sudan, located in northeast Africa on Egypt’s southern border. The country is suffering a polycrisis: War, displacement, hunger, and disease.
There has been a civil war there for the past three years. The two generals who ousted the corrupt president now are battling each other, determined to hang onto power, wealth, and influence.
One of them runs the army; the other controls a powerful paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The UN calls this a “war of atrocities,” with civilians facing systematic rape, torture, and murder, especially by the RSF and its affiliated militias.
Many human rights and relief agencies believe the RSF wants to ethnically cleanse the Darfur region in the west of its Black African, non-Arab population. Human Rights Watch says the RSF appears to be carrying out a genocide against the Massalit people and other non-Arab communities there.
Sudan is a nation of 53 million people, and because of the violence, 12 million of them have been displaced; 8.6 million have left their homes and gone elsewhere in Sudan, while the rest have left the country.
Active famine has been officially declared in several of the country’s 18 states.
Because of the poor living conditions, overcrowding in refugee camps, lack of adequate health care, clean water, and sanitation — as well as a breakdown of routine immunization — there are widespread outbreaks of devastating and fatal diseases, including cholera, dengue, malaria, and measles.
And, of course, there are the devastating US cuts to foreign aid. While Blob the Builder is drooling over his new ballroom and carrying around miniature versions of his arch — which will be about 2.5 times taller than the Lincoln Memorial and just 38 feet shorter than the top of the Capitol building — his minions have decimated funds going to poor countries, primarily by shuttering USAID.
In Sudan, for example, 80% of emergency centers operated by USAID that provided food and medical care for destitute civilians closed. That’s 1,100 kitchens gone, affecting about 2 million people. Since the start of the current civil war three years ago, the US had contributed more than $2 billion, including $661 million in 2024. When Trump took office, that aid quickly disappeared.
In December, the US agreed to give the UN an “initial” $2 billion in humanitarian funding, but that’s to be distributed among 17 countries and the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund. In February, Congress’ foreign aid bill included $9.4 billion for global health, but in Trump’s latest proposed budget, he slashes $4.3 billion from the government’s global health budget.
What is the world doing about this crisis? The BBC reports that there have been several rounds of peace talks in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, but they have failed. Last fall, the US, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt proposed a humanitarian truce and ceasefire. The RSF agreed, but the army said it didn’t trust the RSF to stick by it.
Amnesty International and the UN think the army is getting its weapons from Iran, and that the RSF is being supplied mainly by the United Arab Emirates. Amnesty International also has found evidence of weapons manufactured in Serbia, Russia, China, Turkey, and Yemen.
And so the crisis continues. There simply isn’t any sort of global outcry or international will to help Sudan. Trump is too busy botching the war in Iran, lifting sanctions on Russia, enriching himself and his family through corrupt deals with wealthy Gulf nations, and probably penning secret love letters to Kim Jong Un. And the starving people of Sudan die.
Two-thirds of the people of Sudan need some sort of humanitarian aid. Whenever I write about people in need, many of you email asking how you can help — because you’re a generous lot. So here’s a list:
International Rescue Committee
Sudanese American Physicians Association
Or Google “How can I help Sudan?” and choose your own action. And thank you for your humanity.
In the rest of this newsletter: A sociologist has some advice for dealing with Trump’s chaos, FIFA is embroiled in controversies over World Cup tickets and transportation at US venues, and a Jackie and Shadow update.
