Following attacks on peaceful protestors outside the ministry of defence in Sudan last week Monday by security forces and the civil disobedience in an attempt to get the Transitional Military Council to hand over government power to civilian rule the people of Sudan have been subjected to untold violence at the hand of various para-military groups as well as the TMC. 

In what is essentially a massacre, Sudanese people are living in fear as the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary unit comprised of other armed groups like the dreaded Janjaweed that gained notoriety in the Darfur conflict under removed president Omar al Bashir Rapid Support Forces roam the streets committing atrocities. In the midst of an enforced media and information blackout by a ruling military government that is clinging to power Sudan effectively plunging Sudan into an information blind-spot, the state is slipping into anarchy as peaceful protestors are being battered by a ruling authority that is exhibiting eerie similarities to the al-Bashir’s government. The forced shutdown of telecommunications is a typical move by authoritarian governments to disarm opposition movements who use the internet to garner support from the international community and easily mobilise or to hide human rights violations. 

Reports of the countless human rights violations through online platforms like Twitter from people who have been able to get the information output the death toll at the hands of the military regime at 500 with over 700 injured.  Countless women have been raped and more than 100 bodies found in the Nile River.

Other than the verbal condemnation of the actions of the military government by transnational bodies like the United Nations and the African Union which has suspended Sudan’s membership very little is being done leaving the people of Sudan extremely vulnerable in the face of increasing uncertainty. 

Mahmoud Elumtasim, a political activist, argues that an underlying reason that is not emphasized enough is that the volatility in Sudan is to stem the entrenchment of democracy in the region. For Elumtasim, Saudi Arabia and the UAE's involvement in Sudan is characteristic of its counter-revolutionary actions since the beginning of the 'Arab Spring'. If Sudan were to become a successful democracy it could have implications for the surrounding countries as, at some point, people in non-democratic countries like in the UAE that is comprised of seven monarchies, would want to live in a democracy. 

The limited outrage over Sudan is all too familiar with the selective empathy the international community displays. People have pointed out that when Notre-Dame Cathedral had caught fire and sustained major damage most of the world had been made aware of it and nearly $1 Billion US dollars had been received in pledges. The same support has for actual lives has not been seen by the Sudanese people.

Another factor in selective empathy is that where black lives and, in this case, Muslim lives are concerned the empathy devolves into fast fleeting to no concern. The ongoing violence in Yemen, Syria and Palestine that is in no way being actively addressed by the globe compared to the immediate support provided to Notre-Dame shines light on the fact that where the lives of either African or Muslim people are concerned colonial and white supremacist notions of humanity and who/what is worth saving determine just how bothered the world is.

-JP