Populated villages razed. Satellite images of mass graves. Millions of innocent civilians displaced. People massacred while trying to flee for their lives. Women and girls subjected to horrific sexual violence, including rape.
And this is Sudan today, where a new campaign of ethnic cleansing is underway. The devils are now riding in trucks instead of on horses. They now call themselves the Rapid Support Forces. But their atrocities are an ominous echo of the past. Their victims, too, are the same: members of the African Masalit tribe, mostly subsistence farmers who populate the Western Darfur region. In one atrocity, more than 1,000 people were reportedly massacred in June, simply for plotting to flee the besieged city of El Geneina.
Make no mistake: This is systemic ethnic cleansing of the Darfur region. The world is once again witnessing the beginnings of yet another genocide, unfolding in real time. Yet the international response has been muted.
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End of carousel- March 4 is a sensible day to start Trump’s Jan. 6 federal trial.
- Arkansas should recognize AP African American Studies course.
- Russian interference in U.S. elections won’t end after Prigozhin.
- D.C. Council reverses itself on school resource officers. Good.
During a Monday hearing, Judge Tanya S. Chutkan rejected as “far beyond what is necessary” Donald Trump’s demand to postpone until mid-2026 his trial for allegedly obstructing the results of the 2020 election. Instead, she plans to begin the trial on March 4 — the day before Super Tuesday. Six months is more than enough time for defense counsel to prepare. GOP primary voters deserve to know the outcome when choosing their standard-bearer. Read our recent editorial on why these charges against Trump are warranted.
On the Friday before school restarted in Arkansas, the state announced that the Advanced Placement African American Studies course will not count for academic credit toward graduation. Gov. Sarah Sanders (R) ordered education secretary Jacob Oliva, a former Ron DeSantis appointee she imported from Florida, to ensure students aren’t indoctrinated with critical race theory. The AP class does no such thing, and it’s encouraging that six schools are still offering the class as an elective. Read our recent editorial on Mr. DeSantis seeking to whitewash slavery in Florida’s curriculum.
The Internet Research Agency, a troll farm that boosted Donald Trump on social media during the 2016 campaign, was part of Yevgeniy Prigozhin’s empire and dissolved last month before the Wagner Group leader’s death in a plane crash. Conversations about Russian meddling in America’s domestic affairs tend to occur in the past tense, but Moscow remains deeply committed to manipulating U.S. public opinion. A newly declassified American intelligence analysis warns that Russia is intensifying efforts to manipulate unwitting Americans to spread anti-Ukraine and pro-Russia propaganda. The FSB is playing a long game, and Americans must be on guard. Read our 2019 editorial on what Congress needs to do to guard against Russian election interference.
The D.C. Council voted to stop pulling police officers out of schools, a big win for student safety. Parents and principals overwhelmingly support keeping school resource officers around because they help de-escalate violent situations. D.C. joins a growing number of jurisdictions, from Montgomery County, Md., to Denver, in reversing course after withdrawing officers from school grounds following George Floyd’s murder. Read our recent editorial on why D.C. needs SROs.
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Perhaps world capitals have crisis fatigue. Russia’s war in Ukraine grinds on, with fears of a bloody stalemate after a long-awaited Ukrainian counteroffensive has so far failed to make major territorial gains. In Africa, the coup in Niger risks heightening instability in the troubled Sahel region, where al-Qaeda and Islamic State offshoots are battling for territory. A growing conflict in Ethiopia between the military and a local Amhara militia threatens to spiral into a new civil war in the Horn of Africa.
But the existence of myriad crises and conflicts does not excuse failing to stem a new genocide.
At its convention in 1948, the United Nations called genocide “an odious scourge” to be eradicated, defining it as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” The proscribed acts defining genocide include killing members of a targeted group, forcing the group’s displacement and trying to bring about its destruction. In other words, precisely what is happening in Sudan’s Darfur region right now.
After the Holocaust and the extermination of 6 million Jews in Europe in the middle of the 20th century, the world vowed to never again allow such a preventable tragedy to unfold when there was ample evidence and warning signs. But genocides and outrageous episodes of ethnic cleansing have continued to take place — in Cambodia in the 1970s, in Rwanda in the 1990s, with the Rohingya in Myanmar in the 2000s. The U.S. government and human rights groups and activists have accused China of carrying out a campaign of genocide through its widespread repression of ethnic Uyghurs in its western Xinjiang region, including using mass detention, forced labor, surveillance, and forced sterilization and birth control.
“Never again” seems to have become “again and again,” with the world seemingly unable or unwilling to intervene.
The cause of the bloodletting in Sudan is well-known. Two warring generals vying for power in Khartoum have driven the county to civil war, and the Rapid Support Forces have taken advantage of the anarchy to resume their leftover business from 2003 and 2004 to ethnically cleanse Darfur of its African tribes.
The International Criminal Court has already said it has launched an investigation, but it needs to move faster and name names of those in command. Weapons supplies need to be cut off immediately, so sanctions against individuals and companies supplying arms need to be expanded and tightened. The U.N. Security Council needs to support an African peacekeeping force for the region. Sudan’s key Arab neighbors need to apply pressure on the two generals to halt their senseless duel. Humanitarian corridors need to be established to allow refugees to flee.
During the first Darfur genocide, the administration of President George W. Bush responded by labeling the atrocities a genocide, imposing sanctions on individuals and companies responsible for the violence, and lobbying other Security Council members for a resolution to impose an arms embargo and tougher sanctions on Sudan. A no-fly zone was repeatedly discussed but never imposed. What seems mostly missing now is a sense of urgency. All the warnings and the evidence have not yet galvanized a distracted global community. The world needs to wake up.