The worst humanitarian crisis and people displacement

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Sudan.

Barely on the news. Channel 4 currently is discussing the worst humanitarian crisis currently ( its NOT occurring in Gaza). People are actually REALLY starving and eating rats and leaves from the trees.

No marches, no flag waving, no slogans, no student interest, no protest on campus, no symbol wearing. We all know exactly why. No interest at all.

Have you been on marches? Have you taken part I'm activism for Palestinians? In my local university for instance it is the students who campaign for bds who have been organising marches for Sudan. Mothers against genocide were born from the Gaza conflict and now campaign and fundraise for other conflicts. That is just two examples of 'flag wavers' and students who are interested.

Your experience is your experience but if your experience is not one of any breadth then you should probably caveat your OP with that.

I am not 'shouting you down', there are no victims here, I am simply telling you that your op which was stated as fact is wrong.

Sorry, but it’s just not true that in the UK - which is where the OP is talking about, as I understand it - there is any appreciable public display of concern about Sudan or calls for government intervention, certainly in comparison to anti-Israel activity.

Neither does Sudan (or anywhere else in conflict) attract such a longstanding, well-funded, vocal and organised network of opposition, unlike Israel.

I have my own views about why that is. And the answer, IMHO, is not to do with Palestinian interests.

I agree

No Jews, no news!

I'm not sure why you have chosen to center Israel when talking about pro Palestinian activism. There doesn't seem to be much actual tangible activism for other causes from people involved with Pro Israel groups just a lot of expectation that pro Palestinian groups should do that work too so if that is the circle you surround yourself with I wouldn't expect that you would see it. That's OK though, everybody has particular causes that are close to their hearts for personal reasons and with finite time they tend to priotise where their energy is spent.

There are 50,000 dead due to IDF actions in the last 18 months.

The West Bank is currently under siege from Israeli Iron Wall policy and many have been killed.

Are there lives not worth mentioning because of who murdered them?

Why should any country or military get a pass to commit atrocities because of their religion or ethnicity.

@PurpleChrayn should the current situation not be reported on?

You’re ignoring the main point which is that the Sudan crisis has not received anything like the attention Gaza has.
You tried to claim earlier that Sudan has received adequate attention and now that you’ve been challenged you’re claiming pro Israeli groups seem to expect pro Palestinian activists to “do that work too” .
That’s not a fair representation of what has been said.
I’m getting the impression you don’t really want this discussion to be about the reasons why attention on Sudan lags so far behind the support for Gaza

Of course all this needs to be reported on . There is a serious humanitarian crisis in both countries.

I’m not sure why Sudan is so difficult to cover .

The points from this link are interesting

https://www.bond.org.uk/news/2025/01/sudan-the-media-challenge/

“Why journalists struggle to cover the story
After hearing about the extent of the humanitarian disaster we wanted to understand from the journalists why this was not headline news every day. The discussion that ensued focused on three key factors:

• Logistics – access to Sudan is extremely difficult. It’s hard to move around the country, security is a big challenge and journalist visas are in short supply.
• The static nature of the story – since there appears to be a stalemate in the civil war, with no settlement in sight, there is little sign of movement in the story. The journalists emphasised that they could not keep reporting the same story. They needed a fresh angle.
• Lack of audience interest – this was particularly painful for the charity directors to hear. All the journalists told us that Sudan was a hard sell to their editors. When they did run stories, there was little audience interest. This didn’t mean that they would not cover the story but it did limit their ability to cover it on anything like a regular basis.”

“Lack of audience interest “
😣

I was going to say the same thing- It probably feels too remote, too separated from European life- but to see the suffering of children anywhere is awful.
Children so hungry they are eating soil ..
Yet no aid can get through- it is stolen.

Real hunger is a dreadful thing, and needs careful management- a starving, malnourished child cannot just eat if food does appear, it makes them Ill.

Man’s inhumanity to man - and it is usually men causing this distress- Women describe being raped and assaulted.
We in the West are so lucky- Yes, there is a cost of living crisis but no one suffers serious hunger here, so they are forced to eat dirt and leaves.

@LoyalAquaOtter
You replied to my earlier post saying
“Can I ask why you said that there 'should be space to think about Sudan as well' then? What gave you the impression that there was no space to think about Sudan when clearly there is space actively been given to Sudan and many others?
To be honest your post did irritate me. There is so much time, effort and money being given by a lot of people towards Sudan”

Hopefully you will now do a bit of research and realise that you have misrepresented some posters on here.
It is perfectly valid to say that the crisis in Sudan has not been given enough attention. It is not fair to derail one of the few threads on Sudan

Heartbreaking that that is the attitude towards the crisis.

As a society I think we have become desensitized to suffering.

Is there also a lack of knowledge and background (ironically due to lack of reporting-chicken and egg situation)to the conflict which also drives down interest.

I think this has some truth to it although it is harsh to acknowledge. Just look at mainstream news in the UK right now, for the last few months it has been dominated by the war in Ukraine (not saying that doesn't deserve the coverage it has been getting) but barely a peep on Sudan. Unless you follow/watch Al Jazeera, If you want to learn more about the latest in Sudan, you would have to actively go and look it up.

Our local congregation has members from the Sudanese community and we have done a few fundraisers for them aswell as frequent collective prayers. @Martymcfly24 I agree regarding the desensitisation in society. I also think there's an aspect of trying to control your emotional and mental well being too. I know some people who will say reading about the constant violence (especially the violence perpetuated on females) will have an extreme negative effect on their well being, so they would prefer to just give in charity as they can't do much else to help.

I don’t understand your comment. ‘Pro-Palestinian’ campaigns are always anti-Israel campaigns. That’s how the ‘pro-Palestinian’ cause works.

You could argue they’re both sides of the same coin, I suppose. But the reality is that harming Israel is what the ‘pro-Palestinian’ protestors really care about and argue for.

Thank you for addressing the points the thread was asking. I think lack of interest so unable to get their stories about Sudan on the main news, and fresh story approach are really relevant.

@OpheliaWasntMad - fascinating may be the wrong word of course. I have already detailed my opinion earlier on in the thread.

I think that @LoyalAquaOtter is specifically referring to your post about Ireland and the protests where there is a distinct crossover of people who are doing visible stuff for Palestine and doing stuff for Sudan. I have no idea if this is unique to Ireland.

But If you look at organisations that are taking action or raising awareness about Sudan there is a large crossover between those speaking about Palestine and speaking about Sudan like Amnesty international or MSF.

Of course the mass media and the general public has not picked up Sudan in the same way.

It is definitively lack of interest, I think. One because it is far away from us in Europe, has no effect on us and possibly too because the multitude of conflicts that the country had in the past and that they have been killing, raping, executing particular ethnic groups, starving large groups of population and slaughtering each other since the beginning, 3 years of it. But this is so disgusting. It really speaks poorly of human beings and our societies.

I think there is also an element of fear. It is really one of those you do not want to open the lid for dread of what is inside.

I think this may swiftly change for Sudan this year. They are in talks with Russia regarding a naval base on their coast. That will surely sprout some interest from Europe. Not sure US will oppose it or encourage it, as Trump loves Putin so much.

This is a bit off topic, sorry, but https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/11/the-guardian-view-on-rodrigo-duterte-in-the-hague-a-warning-to-rogue-leaders the ICC court will have the full opportunity to judge the Philippine's ex president. I do have hope that this sets a precedent and the sudanese murderers face their fate soon enough, with the largest terms ever known, most likely.

@Odras
Apologies - just seen your answer- we crossed over

Completely missing the point. They are mentioned frequently and no one is saying don't mentioned them or they are 'not worth mentioning because of who killed them'. Again, straight back to Gaza.

Anyway, I think a combination of reasons given above about lack of interest in Sudan play a big part. Also because another conflict is an ongoing conflict with Israel, whom some people hate as a people/country, it can for some provide an outlet for the deep seated hatred. I mean why pull posters down of hostages otherwise? Why target Jewish students on campus?

Anyway, people have different opinions on why some conflicts attract more attention with a multitude of reasons why.

I agree. It's absolutely tragic. I'm astounded by that, and also the situation of women in Afghanistan.

I was not posting about Ireland specifically. I was responding to another poster.
I was making the point that activists don’t only take part in activism because their government is involved in the issue.
The point was lost on @LoyalAquaOtter who accused me of ignorance and anti Irish prejudice and made sarcastic comments about my “activism” for Sudan.

Yes, that's a good point. People like to focus on a clear "enemy".

Afghanistan is another area that has fallen from the interest of news outlets, in the main, and the general public.

Unfortunately, I think you have a point. Over the last couple of years, that's certainly become a worrying factor.