The deadlock has pushed Sudan into being a "forgotten" conflict.

Sudan's reality

If this were a film, its script would be criticised for overusing every dramatic device.

Looting, rape, executions, and bombings. The horrors of a dirty war are compounded by families driven into exile, legions of starving children, and a cholera epidemic amidst torrential downpours.

Yet, this is the reality of Sudan after 17 months of war.

The United States estimates that the conflict has killed more than 150,000 civilians.

According to the International Organisation for Migration, 11 million people have been displaced within the country, a figure exacerbated by flooding and famine.

Hunger plagues 25 million Sudanese, more than half the population, while rival armies hinder humanitarian aid.

The United Nations has called it "one of the worst humanitarian crises" of our time.

Humanitarian help needed

In the face of international indifference, humanitarian organisations have called for help and action to "put Sudan back on track."

"The international community must mobilise," UNICEF urged this month, arguing that there was "no excuse."

In France, the topic is rarely discussed.

"Sudan is not within our political geography, and it is more covered in Arab and Anglo-Saxon media," said Thierry Vircoulon, a researcher associated with the French Institute of International Relations.

"Humanitarians and journalists have limited access; Sudan is vast, and the fighting occurs on multiple fronts. It's extremely difficult to report on the situation."

Fratricidal conflict

The genesis of this war is a fratricidal conflict between General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, head of the regular army, and General Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, also known as Hemetti, leader of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The former is supported by the old Islamist regime and Khartoum elites, while the latter comes from the Arab Janjaweed militias involved in the Darfur genocide two decades ago.

Together, the two generals overthrew the democratic transitional government established after the fall of Omar Al-Bashir's Islamist dictatorship in 2021.

However, their ambitions clashed, leading to war on April 15, 2023. Their rivalry has unleashed local militias, igniting local conflicts and ethnic tensions.

Initially, major powers failed to grasp the seriousness of the situation.

"No one imagined that this war would last," said Roland Marchal, a sociologist and researcher at CNRS, France's National Center for Scientific Research.

"For U.S. President Joe Biden, Africa has never been a priority. U.S. diplomatic responses have been inconsistent, while Europeans have remained passive, following suit but divided.

From the outset, the silence of China, Sudan's primary trading partner, and Russia has compounded limited the Western response to Sudan."

Regional influence

This gap has allowed other types of interventions.

The ambitions of the two rival generals are cemented by support from regional actors attracted by the strategic importance of a country located between the Sahel and the Red Sea.

"The situation became particularly complex with the rivalries among nations of the Arabian Peninsula," continues the expert.

By providing additional resources without facing any sanctions, these nations have allowed the war to persist.

Their rhetoric and calls for de-escalation did not reflect the reality on the ground, further complicating efforts to understand this conflict and delaying any resolution."

While Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Russia, and recently Iran supported government forces, General Hemetti has received crucial backing from the United Arab Emirates while also establishing ties with Russia through gold smuggling and the Wagner Group.

"With the involvement of Russians and Iranians alongside the regular army, an alliance is emerging that could reflect international fractures and complicate matters even further," Marchal explained.

Russia, for its part, is eyeing a naval base in Port Sudan on the Red Sea, raising concerns within the Western bloc. For now, the entangled rival coalitions hinder any resolution to the war.

"Both sides will continue fighting as long as they have the means, thanks to their allies," Vircoulon said.

Arms trade

To fuel the fighting, the arms trade is king.

"A constant flow of weapons is sustaining the conflict," warned Amnesty International.

Despite an embargo, arms are being delivered to Sudan, particularly Darfur, from China, Russia, Serbia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

Amidst growing chaos, mediation attempts are underway. Since August 14, negotiations have been held in Geneva, initiated by the United States.

However, General Al-Burhan, who leads the army, refuses to sit across from his enemy. Nevertheless, he has allowed the opening of the Chadian border post at Adré, and 15 trucks have recently crossed to deliver humanitarian aid to Darfur.

In Sudan's powder keg, the fighting continues, with shockwaves fueling regional instability. According to Thierry Vircoulon,

"It's a fight to the death for power," a fight that is tearing Sudan apart.

• First reported in La Croix International
• Vanessa Dougnac is a journalist for La Croix International

This year, however, it is more likely to be dismissed as an absurd idea.

The conflict between Israel and Hamas will be decided on the ground by the cache of weapons they have accumulated. The response of their allies has already been to make more and more sophisticated weapons available to them.

Meanwhile, arms manufacturers cannot keep up with the demand to sustain the war in Ukraine, to support other military operations, and to serve a host of geopolitical ends.

In a time of financial stringency Australia has committed itself to enormous expense to provide nuclear submarines. Wars themselves are becoming more lethal with the development of drones and other weapons.

As international and national politics become more polarised and violent in tone, national leaders increasingly see it as reasonable and even obligatory to compete with other nations in seeking access to more destructive weapons with which to defend the nation.

It is common sense to believe that only if you are armed to the teeth will you be safe from attack and will peace be promoted.

Taking for granted the destructive power of weapons

And yet, as so often in human affairs, the cloak of common sense proves to be moth-eaten when more closely examined.

There are two main reasons for this.

First, when nations stockpile weapons powerful and numerous enough to destroy human life in the world many times over, the destructive power of the weapons becomes taken for granted.

People cease to be shocked by it. As a result, the risk of a paranoid or reckless leader using them without regard to the consequences grows higher rather than diminishes.

In such an event it is also more likely that other nations will respond by using their own weapons.

Even if nations are deterred by others' possession of nuclear weapons, other weapons are powerful enough to destroy cities and to drive peoples into exile.

Neither the possession of nuclear weapons by Russia and the allies of Ukraine prevented Russia from invading Ukraine and Ukraine from resisting the invasion at the cost of so many soldiers' and civilians' lives and of the nation's economy.

Because conventional weapons and drones are now seen as normal, the wholesale destruction of civilized life is also taken for granted.

The dangers of a world in which peace depends on nations matching one another in the destructive power of their weapons are evident in current international conflicts.

In Ukraine Mr Putin threatens to withdraw from treaties based to limit the spread and use of nuclear weapons.

Strategists, too, talk openly about how Ukraine's allies should respond if they are used. North Korea also possesses nuclear weapons and leans on their possession for their security.

The rivalry between China and the United States, both nuclear powers, too, risks descending into open conflict in which Australia could be involved.

Pope Francis links personal conversion with international disarmament

Second, the rush to amass more and more expensive weapons ignores the opportunities to shape a better world, which are lost by spending heavily on arms.

The money could have been allocated to public transport, hospitals, schools, care for the aging, more generous benefits and social housing, for example.

Instead, the profits from arms sales, often magnified by lax oversight from government departments, go to large corporations and contribute to inequality.

The expenditure on arms then becomes self-reinforcing and further impedes the ability and willingness of governments to fund just social programmes.

In nations that encourage large munitions firms, weapon making becomes a significant part of the economy. Disarmament is then seen as a threat to employment.

This diversion of resources to the manufacture and use of ever more destructive weapons is now a critical threat to the survival of the world as we know it.

It directly threatens global warming through the emissions generated in the manufacture and use of weapons.

More importantly, it diverts focus from the imminent danger of climate change and from the urgent need to restructure economies, transport and manufacturing in order to prevent emissions rising above their already damaging levels.

In making the weapons and fighting the wars we deem necessary to preserve a world worth living in, we shall surely destroy it.

The irrationality of an arms race based on a balance of terror and the terrible suffering caused by modern wars have led Pope Francis, like his predecessors, to condemn the arms trade and the reliance by governments on weapons of mass destruction.

He also points out the connection between personal conversion and international disarmament. If nations store up weapons out of fear, they may reflect personal relationships marked by fear, defensiveness and retaliation.

Non-violence must take root in our most intimate relationships if it's to flower in our global relationships.

Disarmament Week may seem to be an absurdity. Armament, however, is surely a lunacy.

• Andrew Hamilton SJ is a writer at Jesuit Social Services in Melbourne (Australia) and the consulting editor of Eureka Street, where this article first appeared.
• Republished with the author's permission.

The Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) takes place every two years in the British capital, and brings together members of the arms industry with government officials, military officers, and academics. This year's event takes place Sept. 14-17.

Catholic leaders have objected to the event in an open letter, saying conflicts fueled by the arms trade "harm the poorest communities, force people to flee their homes as refugees, and have devastating consequences for our environment." Continue reading

"Might is right" is the thinking behind the three biggest military powers vying for prestige and power in the world.

The United States, Russia and China, despite being in the middle of a pandemic that is killing hundreds of thousands and infecting millions, continue to build up their armed forces and supply weapons to nations of the Saudi-led coalition making war on the Houthi in Yemen.

The most devastating war is that in Yemen, where thousands of civilians including many children have been killed and wounded, driven to near starvation by the air attacks of a Saudi-led coalition of Arab nations against Houthi rebels that took power in 2015.

The indiscriminate airstrikes against hospitals, clinics, schools, markets, mosques, houses and festival occasions are gross violations of international humanitarian and human rights laws.

The UN has said that as many as 10,000 people have been killed in the war and two-thirds of them have been civilians. The injured total so far is 55,000 and is increasing daily.

Amnesty International has visited Yemen and carefully documented as many as 42 indiscriminate airstrikes. The rights group confirmed the killing of 518 civilians and the wounding of 433.

The evidence was presented last October. In a successful court case, judges ruled that the UK arms trade to the coalition for the war in Yemen was illegal. Even so, the arms manufacturers find ways to supply weapons by using other countries as intermediaries.

Deadly cluster bombs, banned under international law but still manufactured in the United States, the UK and Brazil, have been found in Yemen.

They scatter dozens of smaller bomblets that explode when touched. The exploded remains of missiles supplied by Western countries have been found and documented as evidence of war crimes against the suppliers.

If not killed by bombs and bullets supplied by the arms-manufacturing nations, then cholera, Covid-19, typhoid and starvation have killed thousands more.

An estimated 22 million people in Yemen need humanitarian aid. It is a horrific war bringing death and destruction.

A school bus filled with children received a direct hit in Dahyan from a missile fired by a coalition jet fighter. At least 29 children were killed outright and 30 were seriously injured, a terrible war crime among many for which no one has been held accountable.

Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said it was a "grotesque, shameful" attack and showed a "blatant disregard for the rules of war."

Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates have the most fighter jets and troops in the fighting, while Egypt, Jordan, Sudan and Morocco have given their support.

It is a war against their traditional enemy, Iran, which is supporting the rebels.

The Houthi rebels are also responsible for many civilian deaths.

Behind the coalition are the suppliers of arms, jet planes, missiles, weapons of all kinds.

The Saudi Arabian spending spree is a boon for the arms suppliers who welcome war and weapons sales.

A Google search will show that the main US companies in the arms trade selling to Saudi Arabia are: Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, General Electric, Exxon Mobil, Halliburton, Honeywell, McDermott International and Jacobs Engineering Group.

The US and the UK are the biggest suppliers of jets and missiles and munitions to Saudi Arabia.

The Saudis also buy weapons from France, Italy and Spain. Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden have announced that they will stop selling weapons to members of the coalition, but if they have done so is not clear since billions of dollars in contracts are on offer or have been signed.

So the war rages on.

Money is made by all and the carnage in Yemen continues as the world watches helplessly and too paralyzed to intervene as the arms traders and manufacturers do their dirty, death-dealing business with the approval of their respective governments that issue export licenses for the weapons.

Russia is busy arming and supporting Syrian tyrant Bashar al-Assad, who is going after the last remaining opposition rebels in Ilibid.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has given support to the rebels holding the province.

Assad's army, armed and backed by Russian planes, advance and allegedly bomb hospitals, mosques and markets.

Thousands more civilians are fleeing to the Turkish border where over 1.5 million have taken shelter for the past several years of the nine-year civil war. It is now a stand-off between Syria and Turkey.

In Asia, the United States Navy and the Chinese are escalating from a war of words and consulate closures to near-confrontations in the South China Sea and the West Philippine Sea.

Two US aircraft carriers and support destroyers are patrolling the international waters claimed exclusively by China where it has grabbed and occupied islands belonging to the nations in the region.

The US Navy is planning to return to Subic Bay, Philippines, which it lost in 1991, in a purely commercial deal where US and Australian shipyard companies will buy the former Hanjin ship repair facility and provide repair services to the US Navy.

This will deny the port and yards to Chinese investors who were negotiating with the Philippine government to take them over. Washington and the Philippine Navy oppose the Chinese bid. The rivalry will continue for years to come.

• Irish missionary Father Shay Cullen, SSC, established the Preda Foundation in Olongapo City in the Philippines in 1974 to promote human rights and the rights of children, especially victims of sex abuse.
• The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of CathNews.

This is an increase of almost 50% on the value of arms licensed in the four years preceding the war, which amounted to £3,572,049,751 worth of arms (26 March 2011 - 25 March - 2015).

According to the United Nations, the bombing has created the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.

UK-made fighter jets, bombs and missiles have all played a central role in the bombing.

Since the bombing of Yemen began in March 2015, the UK has licensed £5.3 billion worth of arms to the Saudi regime, including:

• £2.7 billion worth of ML10 licences (Aircraft, helicopters, drones)
• £2.5 billion worth of ML4 licences (Grenades, bombs, missiles, countermeasures)

In reality the figures are likely to be a great deal higher, with most bombs and missiles being licensed via the opaque and secretive Open Licence system.

In June 2019 the Court of Appeal ruled that the Government has acted unlawfully when it licensed the sale of UK-made arms to Saudi forces for use in Yemen without making an assessment as to whether or not past incidents amounted to breaches of International Humanitarian Law. Continue reading

Caritas Internationalis president Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga told a Rome conference on Monday that there are 13 million Syrians in desperate need.

More than four million Iraqis and Syrians are refugees in their own countries, he said.

Gaza has seen 10,000 homes and 70 per cent of its factories destroyed this summer, the cardinal added.

"As part of the humanitarian community, we are confronted with the greatest crisis the world has faced since the Second World War," he said.

Cardinal Maradiaga urged governments to seek a negotiated solution to the conflicts rather than a military one.

He also called for the end of the Israeli blockade of Gaza and a return to the borders recognised in 1967.

He said countries beyond Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey should accept their "fair share" of refugees from Syria and Iraq.

The cardinal said that governments "must agree to a total cessation of arms transfers to the Middle East countries engulfed by conflict," noting that some countries providing arms were even members of the UN Security Council.

Continue reading

• Tahiti independence
• West Papua independence
• Freedom Sunday
• Nuclear testing
• Seabed mining
• Solidarity on mining
• Tourism, fishing and forestry
• Facilitating the concerns of members by engaging on the issue with agencies such as the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat and the Melanesian spearhead Group.
• Ending HIV-AIDS stigmatisation
• Climate change and resettlement
• Teachers for Chuuk
• Arms trade and nuclear weapons

Source

• Island Business
• Image: Cook Island News

Diplomats said the door is still open for further talks, with the possibility of a draft arms treaty being brought to the United Nations General Assembly for a vote by the end of the year.

While most UN members states favoured a strong arms treaty during month-long talks in New York, a small minority — including Syria, North Korea, Iran, Egypt and Algeria — opposed global arms control.

But arms-control activists ultimately blamed the United States and Russia for the inability to reach a decision, as both these nations said there was not enough time left for them to clarify and resolve issues they had with the draft arms treaty.

The Vatican's involvement in discussions was problematic from the outset, since its delegation — along with that of the Palestinians — was denied recognition as a full member.

Nevertheless, the Vatican's Archbishop Francis Chullikatt made clear his delegation's "abiding support for addressing illicit flows of arms".

"The Holy See continues to believe that an arms trade treaty can make an important difference for millions of people confronted with insecurity, deprivation and fear linked to the unregulated and irresponsible transfer of arms and ammunition, and the illicit acquisition of such by criminal and unauthorised non-state actors," he said.

"The treaty would help also in the promotion of a world more respectful of human life and human dignity."

Archbishop Chullikatt advocated stronger provisions to help victims of armed conflicts, by requiring states to offer or receive assistance for their "care, rehabilitation and social and economic reintegration".

Sources:

Vatican Radio

Reuters

AlertNet

Image: Dawn.com

Chullikatt said respect for human dignity and the value of human life must be the founding principle of any treaty.

Ahead of the final preparatory UN meeting in July, the diplomats called for a comprehensive arms trade treaty to make people safer by reducing the human cost of inadequate controls on transfers.

"The Holy See shares the view that the principal objective of the treaty should not be merely the regulation of the conventional arms trade but should be, above all, the disarming of the international illicit market," Chullikatt said.

"Provisions relating to assistance for victims must be maintained, and if possible, strengthened, giving attention also to the prevention of illicit arms proliferation, by reducing the demand for arms which often feeds the illicit market."

Chullikatt said it is the Vatican's view that an Arms Trade Treaty can provide an important contribution to the promotion of a true culture of peace, but he warned that mechanisms for treaty review need to be credible and and quickly adaptable to incorporate new developments.

Sources

• UN News Centre
• Vatican News Daily
• Image: The Guardian