Humanitarian Imperialism and Sudan

https://www.democracynow.org/2024/9/13/sudan

The war in Sudan is tragic and like all Africa stories in the West, it gets little attention or traction. To most people the wars in Africa are just repeating loops of video showing fighters in pick-up trucks with AK-47's and suffering women and children in refugee camps. The politics are beyond most people's ability to understand - and they're not going to take the time to look into them. And while Western leaders speak out, levelling condemnations and offering aid - nothing much seems to change.

And yet NGO's like Human Rights Watch (HRW) attempt to spin these stories to the geopolitical ends of the Western Establishment. HRW played a role in 'naming and shaming' (as they put it) the Soviet Union in the 1970's and 80's, functioning as an unofficial arm of US/NATO policy. And little has changed.

With the end of the Cold War, entities such as HRW have played a significant role in what some have termed 'Humanitarian Imperialism', or putting a humanitarian gloss on Western imperialist aspirations. When the warmongers need their target villainised, they can turn the HRW and other outlets to sell the bombing campaign, war, sanctions, peacekeeping mission, or whatever else to the public. The policy is justified on humanitarian grounds.

And so it is in Sudan. The story ignores the context, how the instability was in fact generated by the US project to carve out South Sudan in 2011 - a move that more or less broke the Sudanese economy and sent it into a tailspin. In 2019 a coup (celebrated and rewarded by Washington) ousted Omar al-Bashir and this was followed by a military counter coup in 2021. The country has since split into two primary factions, each led by war criminals. The official government in command of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) is backed by Egypt and other US interests - but it's also backed by Iran and other countries less friendly to the US agenda. The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) which is a current incarnation of the Janjaweed that tormented Darfur back in the early 2000's is the opposition backed by the UAE and others. The Wagner Group has been involved which has also led to Ukraine's involvement in Sudan - something almost never mentioned in Western media. They've used drones to attack Wagner forces. Russia itself has sold weapons and offered support to both sides at different times. Khalifa Haftar of Libya has supported the RSF and a host of other regional actors are involved. Sudan is critically located - a connection between the interior and the Red Sea. At one time it was more so but it lost a great deal of its oil resources when South Sudan was carved out - a move meant to exclude China.

The HRW reporter is trying to stir up Western audiences in order to promote US intervention, ignoring the fact that it was American meddling that helped to create the situation in the first place. And while the role played by outside nations is revolting, it's nothing new and while US media and Western NGO's will point the finger and 'name and shame' nations like Russia and China, they ignore the role played by Ukraine and other nations. France's support of the Hutu's and Interahamwe in Rwanda and US support for Pol Pot after 1979 are also conveniently ignored. The big powers often play this game. Humanitarian advocates like HRW play an important role in promoting Western aims. This was true in the Balkans and in places like Libya and Syria. And yet their stories are reporting are skewed and manipulative. It's no less the case with Sudan. It would seem that American aims were in part derailed with the 2021 coup and at this point the US would like to see the government led by al-Burhan win the day over the Hemedti-led RSF. It would be the lesser of the evils from the standpoint of Washington.

But it's a dance as the al-Burhan is not reliable and his victory could easily spin away from American control. As mentioned, Iran has supported his military as well hoping to outmaneuver the UAE and gain access to Sudan's ports on the Red Sea. At present al-Burhan is on the back foot and the RSF seems to be advancing. This is likely the reason for the HRW media campaign - an attempt to build international support and turn the tide. The US will not want to get directly involved but will work through proxies. Al-Burhan has appeared at the UN and there seems to be a plan to get the RSF tagged with the genocide label which could in theory result in an international response and money and arms for either al-Burhan's faction or some kind of international intervention.

In the meantime the US continues to back Egypt and sell weapons to them - and Egypt in turn is backing al-Burhan. Though denied by Washington, Libya's Haftar works with the US and he's backing the RSF. And while the UAE has been condemned by Human Rights Watch and others, the US has recently worked to sign a weapons deal with Abu Dhabi, declaring the UAE a 'major defense partner'. Either the US has its reasons for supporting UAE policies in Africa - which includes support for the RSF, or the desire to keep the Emirates away from Chinese influence outweighs all else. Either way, it doesn't bode well for the expendable people of Sudan - caught in the midst of geopolitical games and butchery. And while US media stays silent or spins events - the rest of the world is watching yet another odious episode of American hypocrisy.