The warnings from Sudan grow ever more dire. Already the damage done is hard to comprehend; over nine million people displaced, an unknown number—clearly at least tens of thousands—killed. The capital city of Khartoum and its sister city Omdurman are in ruins. Famine has already arrived in parts of the country and is expected to worsen, risking millions of lives. The destruction of medical infrastructure increases the chances that acute malnutrition will be a death sentence. Mass atrocities, including torture, sexual violence, and ethnic cleansing have been documented and reported on, with the potential for even worse violence hovering over El-Fasher, the only safe haven that remained in the Darfur region.
And yet, the world seems unable—or unwilling—to stop the horror unfolding. Sudan’s suffering is simply more proof that the international mechanisms designed to address threats to peace and security are dysfunctional, that basic norms around humanitarian access and civilian protection have eroded to near oblivion, and that the shame and notoriety that should accompany support for senseless destruction elude far too many decision-makers. It makes plain that none of the world’s major powers have an appetite for stopping state collapse or genocide—and some, like Russia with its pursuit of a Red Sea port, seek to gain from it.
