Thousands of bodies seen from space pictures Sudan massacre

[Ihatetomatoes]

This horrific story just doesn't make the news. The ongoing slaughter of innocents appears to be largely ignored.

If you are unaware its Sudan and 2000 people slaughtered a few days ago.

No poll. Just posting to raise awareness of this tragedy.

^ back to the question of colonialism/ sovereignty and exactly what can be done, practically. Establish protected enclaves for women and children? They’d be perpetually under attack and then infiltrated.

I do think it’s important to consider why the media feeds us certain stories and avoids others. This is something I’ve raised on threads before, the rates of child malnutrition in Sudan are double that of Gaza but no one seems to care.

I do understand it’s partly no Jews, no news and Hamas pumps out propaganda. It’s really difficult to get news out of Sudan. The situation in Sudan seems unfixable though. The constant drip of death and famine is not news, it’s brutal and awful but if it’s an unchanging situation. So the news cycle moves on.

I worked in Sudan many years ago, before marriage and kids. This is the latest iteration of internecine conflicts going back at least 150 years to the Mahdist wars, and arguably 1000+ years before that. When violence breaks out there can be unspeakable cruelty, but basically this is nothing new and the opposing forces are broadly the same people. They’ve just joined different sides and sometimes swap sides.

I find it interesting how the news seems slanted towards Jamaica. There are more deaths in Haiti for example but the aid coming from UK/ USA all seems to be towards Jamaica. I don’t if it’s because Haiti was already in dire straights it’s less of a news story?

Many centuries ago, Sudan was predominantly Christian in the North as well as in what is now South Sudan. South Sudan has its own problems, but the current conflict is in Sudan itself and is between rival Muslim militia.

I think it’s difficult for people in developed countries to understand quite how precarious life in Sudan is. It still largely relies on aging British infrastructure for irrigation etc, as no government has ever maintained any of it properly. The distances between settlements is vast. Darfur may as well be on another planet from Khartoum, unless you are part of a desert-roaming militia. Desert storms can tear up roads, making them impassible for months. The heat in summer is searing. It burns your nostril hair when you breathe in and can melt electricity generators. You can’t easily impose a civil code in a place like that even if you wanted to, which makes clan loyalty far more important than the rule of law.

Jamaica is a Commonwealth country with the same monarch as the U.K. as Head of State and a large diaspora in Britain. I’d expect the wellbeing of Jamaicans to receive more coverage here.

Thank you for your post, and such an informed view.

Yet it is a fertile country is it not @Genevieva ? You’re right, the majority of us know so little, even (especially) the ‘four foreign holidays a year’ crowd only jet between luxury hotels.

Just by way of showing that Sudan has been in the media too … https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c20enql8027o
I think it was PJ ORourke who wrote about accompanying convoys of aid food through rotting fertile fields in the big 1980’s famines.

I think it might simply be because it is easier to get news out of Jamaica, and it will have plenty of local journalists who can provide videos and reports of what is happening. Given how chaotic and dangerous the situation is in Haiti it would be very difficult to really report from the ground there. Cuba is also not getting much attention, and again I suspect it's just due to it being more difficult to get decent footage from.

Yes, thanks for your informative post, @Genevieva

What is reported is what affects us most.
China and USA trade deals affect much of the world, the economy and lifestyle of millions of people. It will be reported
Russia invaded Ukraine, no direct affect to us and a potential problem with Putin and Europe. We cannot change anything but It is reported.
Israel and Palestine it does affect us but not very much, Some Reporting.
Thousands die in Sudan. Massively important to all Sudanese but will not affect us in any way. Why report it, we can't alter anything.
I just looked at Muslim Mumsnet, there are no Threads no posts. No interest. I wish there were an emoji for shrugging shoulders.

It has fertile areas on the banks of the Nile and (less usefully for farming) in the Nuba mountains, but most of the country is desert. Even the fertile areas are arid and are only reliably fertile because of the irrigation systems and care taken by farmers. Khartoum to Al Fashir involved two days driving.

Thank you for this. I've signed and can see others are signing constantly.

Thank you for this. Done this too. Any little thing to raise awareness of this dreadful slaughter of innocents.

446 sent now so only 554 more until our goal of 1,000

That would be a great idea. Anyone know any journalists that might take an interest in this?

As a mother the gang rapes of small children who need surgery afterwards is extremely disgusting. Yet ignored by many outlets.

I understand that the problems are between rival Muslim militia, so I'm surprised that Muslim Mumsnet haven't any posts on this.

"But also hopeless is the question of what you want us to do about it op."

When I read the story I was shocked as I imagine any mother would be. The mass slaughter of innocents. The gang raping of young children or raping of anyone. I wanted to share the story since it's horrifying and happening and yet missed off the main news for most news outlets. No outrage, no disgust, no help for those people.

Some other posters up thread have shared polls to sign and letters to sign to raise awareness and say we care and would hope other countries care too. Perhaps pressure on the UAE to stop giving the Muslim militia arms to kill people with? They are the ones slaughtering people. Someone hoped a journalist might take this story on and make it a focus.

Any other suggestions from anyone?

@Ihatetomatoes Islam is such a peaceful religion.
This story must not be damaged.

Do find the Radio news item I posted about. It is startling, lasts a few minutes..

Because
White people are not killing black people. Black people are killing black.people, and few, very few care about that. The general attitude is "that's what they do".
In addition,
Russians are killing Ukrainians - Ukrainians are killing Russians.
Palestinians are being killed by Israelis and Israelis have been killed by Palestinians.
People in the Carribbean have been killed by a storm and lost all they have.
People here are being killed by other people here.
Compassion fatigue?

I'll have a look, posted up thread?

Those yawn inducing comments always come up unfortunately.

I didn't know there was a march, so thank you. I'll share and sign up too 👍🏾.

I've seen lots of news on this in the past few days. Pretty much every pro Palestine page/person I follow has been posting a lot on this and because my algorithms know that I am pro Palestine it seems to have been feeding me this content if you know what I mean. A lot from mainstream news too, BBC, sky news, ITV etc.

@Ihatetomatoes posted about 11:35 please read.