Good morning. A civil war has Sudan on the brink of the world’s worst famine in 40 years – more on that below, along with warning labels for social media and making friends as grownups.
Today’s headlines
- Justice Hogue to examine allegations of parliamentarians colluding with foreign states
- Eastern Canada under alert for heat wave as temperatures feeling like close to 45 degrees
- Alberta joins other provinces in restricting cellphone use in classrooms
A displacement camp near El Fasher in North Darfur.Mohamed Zakaria/Reuters
Report from Sudan
The brutal cost of a forgotten war
For the past year, a power struggle between two rival armies has pushed Sudan into catastrophe. Weapons are flowing in but assistance is not: At least 25 million people, or half the population, urgently need food and supplies, and 90 per cent of them are in places where it’s too difficult or dangerous to send aid. An entire generation – 19 million children – can’t attend school. Nearly 10 million people have been forced from their homes. The war has created both the world’s worst displacement crisis and its biggest hunger crisis, with Sudan on the cusp of the deadliest famine in 40 years.
It’s impossible to know the true death toll of the conflict, though it could be more than 150,000 people, often in ethnically targeted massacres. (Sudan is predominantly Arab; minority groups such as the Masalit and Fur have come under attack.) “The warring parties tightly control access to the most desperately besieged places,” my colleague Geoffrey York, The Globe’s Africa bureau chief, told me. “They see no reason to allow relief agencies in to witness their atrocities.”
Two decades ago, campus protests and celebrity activism kept the world’s attention on Darfur. Now, as the region is threatened with another genocide, response has been muted. “Gaza and Ukraine have become the focus of activism today, leaving little room for other crises,” Geoffrey said. “But the world has changed too. It’s more cynical and exhausted.”
How the conflict began
When an uprising first broke out in Darfur in 2003, dictator Omar al-Bashir sent in the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) to quash the rebellion. The army’s leader, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, tapped a notorious enforcer to help with the fight: General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, whose paramilitary group Janjaweed – or Devils on Horseback – grew into the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Pro-democracy protests in 2019 posed an existential threat to the military regime, so the SAF and RSF joined forces to overthrow al-Bashir. They united again in 2021, launching a coup to stop a planned transition to democratic elections. The generals swore they’d hand back power to a civilian-led government, but negotiations snagged on who’d have control over the soldiers and weapons. The rival forces began gearing up for a fight, and on April 15, 2023, capital city Khartoum exploded in violence. There’s been no reprieve since.
A geopolitical minefield
The war may have started as a battle for power, but the RSF is targeting ethnic minority groups, torching villages and killing thousands as it closes in on El Fasher – the army’s last holdout in Darfur, and home to 1.6 million people. Last week, the UN demanded an end to this siege, but Geoffrey doesn’t expect the RSF to bow to pressure. The United Arab Emirates is reportedly supplying weapons; Arab ethnic groups from countries such as Chad are supplying many of the fighters. “Until those external supports are severed, the RSF can afford to ignore any UN demands,” he told me.
It took Canada until the war’s first anniversary to announce sanctions on the RSF and SAF, along with $132-million in emergency aid. But Sudan needs US$2.7-billion, and only 16 per cent of that has arrived so far. At their summit in Italy last week, G7 leaders insisted that non-specified “external actors” had to stop “fuelling the conflict.” A lasting ceasefire is unlikely to happen until they’re prepared to name names. “If the United States and European Union are willing to do that, and if they begin applying diplomatic and economic pressure on those foreign allies, there will be a better chance of peace talks finally resuming,” Geoffrey said.
The Shot
Just a friendly meeting of warships
Beep beep, warship.Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters
The Trudeau government defended sending a navy patrol boat into Havana’s port after a fleet of Russian ships had camped out there for days. Read more here.
The Wrap
What else we’re following
At home: Calgary water restrictions will last another three to five weeks, after workers found more problems in the busted water main – though the 2024 Stampede is set to go on.
Abroad: Shockingly well-preserved bottles of centuries-old cherries (and what appears to be gooseberries) have been found lurking under George Washington’s Mount Vernon home.
Sounding off: After the CRTC told streaming giants they’d have to shell out to support Canada’s creative industries, Spotify and Apple Music are making noise about hiking prices in return.
Buddying up: Social events (and the occasional app) can take the awkwardness out of making new friends as adults.