Silence Kills as Surely as Guns
Speak Up and Resist the War and Genocide in Sudan

Headlines and newscasts are filled with the atrocities in Israel/Palestine, pushing the brutal invasion of Ukraine by Russia to the background. Barely registering in Western media reports is the ongoing civil war in Sudan that started anew in April 2023 with armed skirmishes between rival factions of the Sudanese military government: the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF, an outgrowth of the brutal Janjaweed militia).

Since the summer, other rival armed factions have engaged, and Sudan is currently split between the dominant SAF (about 3/4 of the territory), the RSF (nearly 1/4), and smaller areas dominated by other rebel factions. Broken ceasefires, looting, sieges, attacks on infrastructure, and massacres have terrorized the citizenry, exacerbating humanitarian crises of disease outbreaks and starvation. A number of foreign governments—including Chad, Egypt, Libya, and the UAE, plus the infamous Wagner Group of Russia—have participated in the conflict on one side or another.

Efforts to defuse the conflict have thus far failed, and as of October, 9,000-10,000 people have been killed, 6,000-12,000 wounded, 4.8 million internally displaced, and more than 1.3 million have fled to neighboring countries as refugees. Once again, the Darfur region of Sudan has been the scene of acts of genocide, according multiple knowledgeable sources.

Why should we care about conflict in a corner of North Africa? Sudan borders Egypt to the north, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, Central African Republic and Chad to the west, and Libya to the northwest. Aside from the massive and brutal loss of life and huge numbers of displaced persons within Sudan and into neighboring countries, this continuing civil war is destabilizing the entire region of northeast Africa. Even as we work for peace in Israel/Palestine and Ukraine, we must bear witness to the suffering in Sudan, and seek to find ways to end the violence.

Call your U.S. Representative (202-224-3121) and your U.S. Senators (202-225-3121) today. Insist that the U.S. lend its diplomatic and economic weight to international efforts aimed at ending this brutal and destructive conflict. Let us know of your activism.

Every human life has dignity, and we at PDA will continue to educate elected officials on the need for diplomacy over military violence, and for humanitarian succor over ethnic and racial hatred.

Where there is conflict, we stand for peace. Where there is suffering, we stand ready to help. Where there is injustice, we speak up. Every hour. Every day. Every year.

In solidarity,

Debra Schrishuhn for the PDA National Team