Sudan: The Silent Genocide and Failure of International Law

Introduction

Since April of 2023, Sudan has been submerged in the worst humanitarian crisis in the world as the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) wage a brutal power struggle. The RSF, a paramilitary force evolved from the Janjaweed militia responsible for the 2003 Darfur genocide, continues to target Indigenous Black communities. Despite overwhelming evidence of genocide in Sudan, international law has failed to protect its victims or hold perpetrators accountable, largely due to political complicity, weak enforcement mechanisms, and the involvement of powerful states like the United Arab Emirates (UAE). 

What Is Happening in Sudan?

According to the United Nations (UN), over 12 million people have been displaced and more than 150,000 killed in Sudan’s ongoing genocide. Numbers are likely far higher due to limited access to data. These reports don’t include those who died from food deprivation. UNICEF has confirmed famine across much of the country, with millions facing starvation. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification has declared that many regions are at Stage 5 of famine, meaning that the lack of food access is so catastrophic and widespread that people are dying from hunger. Despite Sudan’s gold wealth, most citizens live in poverty while the RSF terrorizes civilians through mass killings, sexual violence, and drone strikes. Videos of men, women, and children being gang raped, hanged, tortured, and executed have circulated on social media with little coverage. Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab released a report that featured bodies and blood from massacres seen from satellite images from space. After the SAF withdrew its stronghold, the RSF seized the major city of Al-Fashir. The civilians trapped have no way to access any food and are being terrorized and executed by the RSF. 

According to the UN children's agency at UNICEF, armed men are committing rape and sexual assault against children as young as one year old. Many survivors are so deeply traumatized that some have reported attempts to take their own lives. Widespread sexual violence has been extensively documented as a weapon of war throughout the past two years. About one-third of the victims are boys who often face challenges when it comes to reporting these crimes. The RSF and allied militias are the perpetrators of these crimes and ethnic cleansing against non Arab populations in the country. 

The People Behind the Violence and the UAE’s Role

The RSF is powerfully armed with drones and extensive military equipment. At face value, they are a paramilitary group capitalizing on Sudan’s unstable government following the coup of the 30-year rule of the infamous Omar al-Bashir. In reality, they are being funded by one of the world's richest countries, the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The UAE owns many gold mines in Sudan and is considered one of the world's leading gold importers and exporters, despite not having any gold mines. The UAE is the most significant buyer of Sudan’s gold, particularly gold smuggled from the RSF-controlled areas. The UN has accused the UAE of arming the RSF with weapons to commit genocide. The UAE continues to deny this despite its history of human rights abuses. A leaked UN report revealed cargo flights from the UAE into Chad as a way to smuggle in weapons to the RSF into Sudan, reportedly with assistance from the Kenyan government.

AJ Plus also reported Colombian mercenaries assisting RSF forces in training child soldiers and carrying out mass killings. As journalist Sakhr Al-Makhadhi noted, although the conflict in Sudan involves two local armed factions, the forces supporting and sustaining them extend well beyond Sudan’s borders. The UAE seeks to dehumanize darker-skinned Sudanese people by portraying them as “less muslim” and “less human” because of their skin color. This narrative is designed to foster apathy toward their suffering and strip them of their humanity. 

Lack of Coverage

Most Western and Arab media prioritize conflicts with “geopolitical significance.” African suffering is often seen as something “less urgent.” The main news outlets that have been consistently talking about the atrocities in Sudan are AJPlus and Al Jazeera. Even the most progressive news outlets, such as Democracy Now!, rarely report on the suffering of the Sudanese people and prioritize what is happening in Palestine, ignoring the fact that the suffering of both Sudanese and Palestinians is, in fact, interconnected. 

Silence benefits the powerful people who profit from the instability and resource extraction of African nations. Since Oct 27th, 2025, within two days, the RSF has killed over 2,000 people. On top of that, on Oct 29th, 2025, the RSF reportedly brutally murdered every person they saw in a hospital in Al-Fashir. The death toll is more than 460 people.

The lack of coverage reflects how global conflicts are often overshadowed by those that U.S. and U.K. media outlets choose to prioritize. The United States government has shown minimal engagement with the catastrophe in Sudan, offering little more than public condemnation and sanctions that don’t hold enough weight. Language plays a crucial role in shaping public perception and determining how much attention a story receives. Describing the violence in Sudan as a “proxy war” or “civil war” minimizes the situation and obscures the targeted campaign of violence against darker-skinned Darfuri Sudanese people. 

Activists have called to show support for Sudan by engaging in economic boycotts of Emirati-owned or affiliated brands. Notable examples include Emirates, Etihad Airways, along with partner companies such as Shell and Coca-Cola. Boycotting also extends to avoiding travel to Dubai. Additionally, the English football club, Manchester City, is owned by Sheikh Mansour, the current Vice President of the UAE. On November 1st, protests calling for accountability and action for Sudan occurred outside Manchester City’s stadium. 

International Law and Its Failures

The 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was the first human rights treaty adopted by the UN General Assembly. This was created after the Holocaust, in which 6 million Jewish people were killed by Nazi Germany. It’s also known as the Genocide Convention. The International Criminal Court (ICC) investigates and prosecutes individuals for heinous crimes such as genocide. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) handles disputes between Nation States. Both entities lack enforcement power without strong backing from the Security Council. The permanent members, such as China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, are able to veto any substantive resolution. These political vetoes have the power to block intervention or sanctions. 

When Sudan brought a case to the ICJ accusing the UAE of breaching the UN Genocide Convention by arming and funding the RSF, the court said it lacked the authority to continue the proceedings and threw out the case entirely. When the UAE signed the Genocide Convention in 2005, it entered a reservation. In international law, a reservation is a unilateral statement made by a state when signing or ratifying a treaty to exclude or modify the legal effect of certain provisions of the treaty. The reservation was towards a key clause that allows one country to sue another at the ICJ over any disputes. For this reason, the entire case was dismissed. 

The international community prioritizes stability and profit over any true justice. Countries sign treaties not to be held accountable, but for reputation purposes. This is a strategic way to signify trustworthiness and to gain a “credible” international standing. The vast majority of people who have been actually prosecuted by the ICC for war crimes have come from countries in the Global South, specifically African countries. This reveals a clear disparity in accountability and who faces justice based on which passport they hold. 

Conclusion

The ongoing genocide and humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan reveal not only the brutality of the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces but also the deep moral failure of the international community. Despite clear evidence of war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and famine, global powers have chosen silence and profit over justice and human life. The complicity of nations like the United Arab Emirates, whose financial and military support fuels the RSF’s violence, demonstrates how geopolitical interests continue to outweigh human rights. Meanwhile, the failure of international law, from the Genocide Convention to the International Criminal Court, exposes a system designed to protect power rather than people.

The lack of global media coverage for the past two years further reinforces the perception that African suffering is somehow less important, allowing atrocities to continue in the dark. The genocide of the Sudanese people did not happen suddenly. It is the result of a long, calculated campaign of ethnic cleansing designed to allow the UAE and other nations to continue exploiting Sudan’s people for its natural resources. These atrocities are not isolated incidents. True solidarity with Sudan requires breaking that silence, through awareness, advocacy, and tangible international action. It is the responsibility of the international community to speak out and demand proper legal enforcement and accountability before another generation of Sudanese people is lost to the violence that the world chose to ignore. 

Image Source: International Rescue Committee