Thinking Citizen — Sudan — “The Largest Child Displacement Crisis In The World (UNICEF)
Thinking Citizen — Monday is Foreign Policy Day
Today’s Topic: Sudan — “the largest child displacement crisis in the world (UNICEF)
Do you have any idea how many people have been displaced in the Sudan? 30 million.
How many are children? 15 million. How many are under the age of five? About 5 million.
Is it getting worse or better? Apparently, worse. What should every thinking citizen know about the crisis in the Sudan? To be honest, I have no idea. Does anybody else? What are the lessons for students of world history?
Every day, I am ever more conscious of how little I know and how much less I understand.
Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
A LITTLE CONTEXT — The British-Egyptian “Condominium” (protectorate) of 1899–1955. De facto British colony. Independence in 1956
1. First Sudanese Civil War 1955–1972 between North (Arab, Muslim and South (African, animist and Christian). Killed: approximately 500,000.
2. Second Sudanese Civil War: 1985–2011: ended with independence for South Sudan in 2011. Killed: two million.
3. War in Darfur: 2003–2020: “between the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebel groups against the government, which they say is oppressing Darfur’s non-Arab population. The government responds with a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Darfur’s non-Arabs. The UN estimates up to 300,000 are killed in the fighting.”
NB: The dictator Omar Bashir (1944 — ) came to power in a military coup in 1989 and was ousted in another coup in 2019 by a coalition led by two opposing forces which are now in conflict- the SAF (Sudanese Armed Forces) under General Abdel Fatah al Burhan and the RSF (Rapid Security Forces) under Mohammed Hamdam “Hemedti” Dagalo.
ABOUT 3 MILLION PEOPLE HAVE FLED ‘’TO UNSTABLE AREAS IN CHAD, ETHIOPIA, AND SOUTH SUDAN, OVERRUNNING REFUGEE CAMPS”
1. Latest phase of the conflict began on April 15, 2023.
2. Since then, another 150,000 have been killed.
3. The Battle of Khartoum (2023–2025) — “The battle began on 15 April 2023, after the RSF captured Khartoum International Airport, several military bases, and the presidential palace, starting an escalating series of clashes. The battle was also the longest continuous battle in Sudanese history, the longest battle in an African capital ever, the longest in North African history and is one of the deadliest recorded battles in Sudanese and African history, with over 61,000 deaths.”
NB: “On 26 March 2025, the SAF claimed victory after expelling RSF forces from most of Khartoum, including the airport and the presidential palace.”
RSF SUPPORTERS: EGYPT, ETHIOPIA, UAE, AND SAUDI ARABIA; SAF: IRAN, RUSSIA, UKRAINE (below Burhan and Hemdti)
1. “To the east, Ethiopia and Eritrea are now supporting the paramilitaries of the RSF, which recently fought alongside Ethiopia against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which in turn is supporting the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).
2. “Other former rebel forces in Darfur and armed groups in eastern Sudan are fighting alongside the RSF.”
3. So if Russia, Iran, and Turkey support the SAF, does that make the SAF the bad guys? But the RSF is the faction responsible for the genocide in Darfur, right?
NB: But, wait, the Ukraine also supports the SAF! What? “Ukraine’s backing of the SAF came in light of its opposition to the Wagner group, which supported the RSF before and after the war.”
Are you as confused as I am? “Both generals in Sudan’s war quickly praised Trump’s reelection.” (last link below)
Conflict in Sudan: A Map of Regional and International Actors
Opinion | The Darfur Genocide Never Ended
Sudan’s paramilitary forces declare rival government two years after civil war erupts
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdel_Fattah_al-Burhan
Trump’s Return: What It Means for Sudan’s Crisis
QUOTE OF THE MONTH — Have you made your own Bible yet?
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
LAST FOUR YEARS OF POSTS ORGANIZED THEMATICALLY
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
NB: Palestine Orion (Decision) — let’s exchange Orions, let’s find Rumi’s field (“Beyond all ideas of right and wrong, there is a field. Meet me there” Rumi, 13 century Persian Sufi mystic)
YOUR TURN
Please share the coolest thing you learned in the last week related to political process or campaign strategy or 2020 candidate selection or anything else for that matter.
This is your chance to make someone else’s day or change their thinking. Or to consolidate in your own memory something worth remembering that might otherwise be lost. Or to clarify or deepen your own understanding of something dear to your heart. Continuity is key to depth of thought.
