Just where did our humanity go wrong?

Have we become so entrenched in our comfortable lives that our humanity no longer has meaning?

In 1989, Omar al Bashir, backed by the National Islamic Front, wrested power from the Sudanese leadership of the Al Khatim dynasty’s President Ahmed al Mirghani, whose rule had been characterised by corruption and violence.

Al Bashir was, in 2019, himself unseated by a popular revolt in the wake of the Panama Papers revelations of his enormous personal wealth, human rights violations, numerous war crimes, and genocide in Darfur, against the Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa tribal groups.

His reign was also notable for the fomenting of antagonism between South Sudan and the remainder of the country. The South eventually took control of its own destiny in 2015, but Al Bashir was somehow able to control its purse-strings for another four years, and reap the benefits.

His successor, was Sudanese Armed Forces General Ahmed Awad ibn Auf, who then immediately handed effective power to a military junta under the leadership of Lt General Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Burhan, who in turn established a Sovereign Council, with a civilian Prime Minister in Abdallah Hamdok. Almost unsurprisingly, this council, and the semi-civilian government, were dissolved by Burhan, and since late in 2021, a parade of fractured ‘governments,’ have been formed, dismissed, reformed, dismissed again with eventually Hamdok, several of his cabinet, politicians, and academics, being ‘detained’ without access or representation.

Little though, for this tragic nation’s people, has changed. Its population of 50 million continues to face tribal and ethnic conflict, with casualties over the last two decades conservatively expressed in the millions.

Though it looks like a game of bomb and bullet snakes and ladders, the absurdity of the fatalities, and the scope of the humanitarian crisis, make it very clear that the Sudan is no joke.

The brutal campaign of violence in Darfur alone has accounted for over one million either killed or displaced, mostly between 2003 and 2005, while famine, cholera, chickenpox, malaria, and measles are the cost this nation will face in perpetuity if a solution is not found quickly!

What reeks of astonishing cruelty within this distressing dynamic is the denial of access to aid by the current warring factions, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and the dangers posed by armed gangs taking advantage of a dire situation.

A total of 38 humanitarian workers have perished, more than 200 of their vehicles have been destroyed or stolen, at least seventeen warehouses and distribution points have been looted, during recent years. We could question how they can do this to their own, but it seems, again tragically, tribal allegiances and run much deeper than nationality. These aren’t real soldiers though, just bullies with guns!

Humanitarian organisations are united in their belief that, as in any complex humanitarian situation before, that security, shelter, food, water and healthcare are the basic requirements of the most vulnerable among the population, the 12 million children, 4 million mothers, and 5 million other women.

So that’s 21 of 25 million who could starve or die of thirst. Add in the health issues the women face from the violence, and it’s so incredibly cruel, as, for them, their future offers only the prospect of a harsh, painful, undignified, demise.

I don’t have any answers, because whoever, or whichever nation, seeks to intervene will be crucified, and anyway, no nation today wants to expose its sons and daughters to potential fatalities in a ‘Wild West’ environment, do they?

So, in reality, how do we help? Clearly, throwing money at the problem won’t help, because someone will steal it. Aid will get stolen, robbed, or ‘appropriated’ by one of the antagonists, and those poor people, those tragic women and children, are the ones paying the price.

It’s a humanitarian tragedy, one we must surely find a solution to, or our own humanity becomes pointless.