Sudan explained: A conflict ignored
Your first Saturday deep dive.
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We don’t hear about Sudan anymore. There was a moment - a very brief moment - just after war broke out there in April 2023 when the international media paid attention. We saw headlines, we saw it featured as the lead story in news broadcasts, and we saw top journalists post about it to their social accounts.
Why? Well, I have a theory. During those first few weeks, white people were caught up in the conflict and struggling to flee the country.
As several nations scrambled to get their citizens out - dispatching military planes, navy ships and organizing land convoys - the media was rapt.
France launched Operation Sagittaire and managed to evacuate more than 1,000 people, the U.S. airlifted its embassy staff, and the UK sent in six Royal Air Force planes to rescue stranded Brits. These stories screamed from the headlines. There were constant reports and even live blogs dedicated to documenting these efforts in real-time. To be clear: much of this coverage was in news organisations that claim to be international in scope and aspire to an international audience.
Once the foreigners were out, Sudan slipped from the headlines. As the violence escalated, as Khartoum fell apart, and as Sudanese were slaughtered, the world started to shrug. Africans killing Africans? Who sees the news value in that?
But there is news value in that. It matters.