Anarchy and Genocide in Sudan

Anarchy and Genocide in Sudan: A Country Destroyed by a Geopolitical Chess Game

Photojournalist Uncovers The Horrifying Truth About the African Country’s Civil War

By Jordan Siegel

Nyala landscape Photo: Jordan Siegel

Sudan teeters on the edge of becoming the next Rwanda or worse, with millions of lives at stake as war engulfs the country.

The truth is that it didn’t have to be this way.

The international community, including the US, Israel, and UAE, must shoulder responsibility for their errors and face the consequences of empowering Sudan’s notorious leaders, al-Bruhan and Hemedti – instead of prosecuting them for war crimes committed during the Darfur genocide.

As covert deals were brokered with the US and Israel, Sudan’s paramilitary forces perpetrated unspeakable atrocities in Darfur. Mass murder on an almost daily basis. Millions of Sudanese civilians are starving. Their homes and villages burned to the ground. Teenage girls being raped by brutal armed militia.

This tragedy could have been averted if the international community had supported Sudan’s civilian-led government instead of resorting to the Arabian Council. Now we have incomprehensible devastation and human suffering in this North-East African country, which the world is largely unaware of how it all started due to the Sudanese military’s media ban.

Volunteer men show off their guns purchased from the black market in order to protect their community in Gereida, South Darfur. Photo: Jordan Siegel

Going Undercover To Reveal The Truth

Defying the media ban, I infiltrated Darfur under false pretenses while pursuing an independent documentary, fully cognizant of the risks. What I uncovered was appalling: not merely a war but a calculated, heinous campaign of mass starvation targeting African tribes who were internally displaced. This horrifying tactic was employed by the government to retain power.

The humanitarian crisis in Darfur is critical, with international aid agencies barred from distributing food in numerous localities and violence reaching unparalleled heights. This isn’t merely a neglected war but an unfolding catastrophe that necessitates immediate intervention.

Upon my arrival in Darfur in January 2021, I was thrown into a small room by corrupt soldiers and stripped of my documents, including my passport. The Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary unit, detained me and threatened deportation. They eventually relented to my false narrative, stamping my Visa but warning me about the dangers that lay ahead.

Upon my second trip to Darfur, I was again held against my will. Fortunately, I received support from a rebel group a friend connected me to, and its members facilitated my entry into Darfur. As one of the few foreigners in the war-torn region, my safety was no longer guaranteed. I was on my own in a place where corruption and violence reigned supreme.

The crisis in Sudan is a testament to the international community’s failure to prioritize negotiations with the infamous leaders who orchestrated the Darfur genocide instead of addressing the severe economic crisis in Sudan. This support could have empowered the civilian government to assume control and the current civil war could have been avoided.

“We never see any reporters, you are the first one we’ve met in over a decade,” some locals in South Darfur informed me. The lack of media access and attention has made it extremely difficult for the country’s chaos and disarray to be fully explained.

Rebel forces from the Sudanese Liberation Force patrol the street in one of the last rebel stronghold in Gereida, South Darfur. Photo: Jordan Siegel

The current situation in Sudan is fueled by G7 negotiators and their deals with corrupt factions of the government, disregarding the violence inflicted upon innocent civilians in Sudan.

After al Bashir, the former Prime Minister, was removed from power, the newly-elected Prime Minister Hamdok and his civilian government asked for economic sanctions to be lifted and for international funds to help with debt relief. However, these requests were unsuccessful.

The Trump Administration wanted Sudan to agree to join Israel's Abraham Accords, which recognized Israel, before providing further debt relief. This meant that Israel would have to negotiate not only with the civilian government but also with a Sudanese military led by General Abdel Fattah al Burhan.

Al-Burhan took advantage of this situation by delaying deals and negotiations with the US and Israel, knowing that Sudan's civilian government would eventually collapse, while al-Burhan and Hemedti used the gold and illicit trades to sustain hundreds of millions of dollars that fell under kleptocracies.

Meanwhile, President Hamdok faced financial difficulties that prevented him from supporting UN-AU forces protecting tribes in Darfur. In July 2020, he decided to withdraw these forces and planned to transition to a UN-AU peacekeeping mission. However, this plan failed, allowing the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to move in and take control.

This led to a significant increase in violence in Darfur and, following a political chess game over the next year, al-Burhan and Hemedti staged a military coup in October 2021. This resulted in the resignation of interim Prime Minister Adalla Hamdok and a military takeover.

Outside Nyala's city market, former Janjaweed militias who now serve as members of the paramilitary RSP (Rapid Support Forces) climb atop a public bus, utilizing it as a means of transportation. Photo: Jordan Siegel

Witnessing Anarchy First-Hand

When I visited Darfur in both 2021 and 2022, I witnessed first-hand how it was being governed by the Sudanese Army and the RSF, hostile militant forces responsible for the 2003 Darfur genocide that killed around 300,000 civilians

due to their African descent.

There was no civil security or protection. No international agencies or organizations to turn to. Meanwhile, reaching the nearest embassy requires a three-to-four-day drive through this anarchic region.

In Darfur, the roads between towns are marked by worn tire tracks left behind by previous vehicles. Photo: Jordan Siegel

“There’s no security here. The military you see here are former Janjaweed militias, now called the RSF,” a local villager in South Darfur told me. “The previous militias (Janjaweeds) that used to ride horses and camels, burning villages, are now integrated into the Sudanese Army.

“They treat us the same as before.” He continued, “I hope for the international organization to come see our situation, to solve our problems, because it’s one of our basic human rights. If not, if our situation will not be solved, the majority here will starve.”

By 2022, OCHA (The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) had announced that over 12 million people – or a quarter of the population – especially in the Darfur region, were facing acute hunger. According to the World Food Program, over 19 million people are suffering from food insecurity at present.

In Nyala, South Darfur, Numa, a single mother, sits with her children outside their makeshift home inside an IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camp. Photo: Jordan Siegel

The direness of the current situation calls into question the rationale behind G7’s willingness to engage in political negotiations with brutal leaders who can, and do, act with impunity.

The international community, including the United Nations and the United States, brokered the two-part Juba Peace Agreement, urging the Sudanese people to unite behind the deal for a successful transition and a better future.

Meanwhile, the continuation of brutality by Hemedti’s RSF was left largely ignored. Hemedti was able to employ global public relations firms in order to portray himself as a positive force, deceiving observers, despite evidence to the contrary.

Rape Being Used As A Weapon Of War

I met with some local villagers who had recently survived an ambush attack two weeks previously in their local village a few kilometers away. “The Juba agreement is the same as the Abuja agreement. There’s no difference; it’s just the media who are not here on the ground. After the Juba agreement, we lost more men than in the past,” said one survivor who witnessed his brother being killed with a machete during an ambush attack by the Janjaweed backed by the RSF.

“The military government told us it was safe for us to go back to our village after it was attacked by the Janjaweeds. The next day they came and attacked us again, some wearing RSF uniforms,” stated another local villager from Gereida, South Darfur.

The RSF and the Janjaweeds were also using rape as a weapon of war ever since the UN-AU were withdrawn. Many of the young schoolgirls that I met at Gereida High School were visibly traumatized and would walk together in large groups to and from school in fear of being raped by the nearby Janjaweeds and RSF.

Highschool girls use their classroom as a haven from the nearby Janjaweeds and RSF. Photo: Jordan Siegel

I sat down and spoke with a volunteer gunmen and his unit who had purchased old Soviet guns from the black market in order to defend their community. “If you go out 30 meters north from Gereida...if you go out more than this you will be raped,” he said. “They are raping women and that’s happening now.”

Every day the RSF were allowing and sometimes joining the Janjaweeds as they gathered along the gated permitters of the town I was in, frequently raping women and young girls, and killing innocent civilians.

Twice a month the town would be ambushed, where dozens end up killed and hundreds displaced. This was in 2021, and since then the US administration, Israel, and UAE continued to push to Hemedti and his forces to integrate into a democratic government.

The involvement in international negotiations and becoming signatories to international and bilateral treaties may have inadvertently bolstered the very actors responsible for heinous crimes against humanity, all in the hope that social cohesion may one day be achieved through an orderly government transition.

Two men belonging to the volunteer forces rest inside a local's home, taking a moment to relax after enjoying a cup of coffee. Photo: Jordan Siegel

However, the Darfurian people were not given a platform to voice their opinions or concerns about the agreement. Without their participation, the Darfuris have tragically become pawns in the Machiavellian politics unfolding in Khartoum.

Campaign of Mass Starvation

When I visited Darfur in 2021 and 2022 al-Burhan and Hemedti seemed to have entered into some kind of power sharing agreement – not exactly working side by side, but rather having portioned up the country, each exercising ground control in their respective areas.

What I uncovered was appalling: not merely a war but a calculated, heinous campaign of mass starvation targeting African tribes who were internally displaced. This horrifying tactic was employed by the government to retain power.

“Due to the humanitarian crises, political parties can’t be formed. We have to fix the humanitarian situation first,” according to a spokesperson from the prominent rebel group known as the General Sudanese Forces. When I interviewed this man in November 2022, and asked him if he trusted al Burhan’s claim that he was willing to work with the civilian government, he told me “no”.

Despite their atrocities, these political actors wield influence over international negotiations, consolidating their power and forcing civilian acceptance. Restricted access to Darfur further hampers proper exposure of their crimes, and endangers any Sudanese civilians who dare to seek justice.

The failure to address this political white-washing and coercion might be explained by the severe restrictions placed on both local and international journalists and non-governmental organizations, preventing civilized societies from getting a real read on the situation on the ground.

The international community’s professed dedication to engaging with Sudan’s rivaling factions however, cannot be explained away by a lack of insight or finger-crossing laissez-faire. The G7 international committee has yet to intervene on the current war in Sudan, despite the extreme ethnic cleansing that is occurring.

It is becoming more and more evident that the G7 approach to Sudan has been flawed and shortsighted. The prioritization of negotiations with notorious strongmen, who on the one hand share a long history of violence against civilians, and on the other are now engaged in an embittered power struggle, was premature at best.

The international committee was misguided by the two duopoly generals thinking they were power-sharing allies. In reality, al-Burhan was being supported by Egypt and countries backing Islamic values like Qatar, while Hemedti was supported by Dubai, Abu Dhabi and the Emirates due to his influence with the war in Yemen.

Some may argue that the US, or the international community at large, should not be responsible for paying off Sudan’s debt, and that there may have been other financial opportunities to support a transition to civilian rule. Lifting sanctions, reducing tariffs, sanction and target illicit financial flows, supporting humanitarian aid missions affected by US sanctions, and providing enough debt relief to support the UN-AU peacekeeping forces in Darfur are just some examples.

The cost of this war will be immense, both for the people of Sudan and the international community. The Russian Wagner Group mercenary forces have now taken hold of millions of dollars of Sudan resources. Foreign intelligence have also indicated that operatives from al-Qaeda and Islamic State are believed to be now active in the city of Khartoum and are recruiting for an expansion.

The dire situation unfolding in Sudan paints a bleak picture of a region caught in the clutches of ongoing violence and fraught political machinations. As a result, countless innocent lives have been lost and the voices of truth-seekers and dissenters forcibly silenced.

The Sudan crisis is a stern reminder that our collective global conscience and responsibility must move beyond rhetoric to deliver hope and change in the lives of the suffering Sudanese.

Sudan deserves better, and we must act now before it’s too late.