Aid workers fear a new disaster as militia forces close in on a major Darfur city.

On a sunny April afternoon in 2006, thousands of people flocked to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., for a rally with celebrities, Olympic athletes, and rising political stars. Their cause: garner international support to halt a genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region.

“If we care, the world will care. If we act, then the world will follow,” Barack Obama, then the junior Illinois senator, told the crowd, speaking alongside future House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. That same week, then-Sen. Joe Biden introduced a bill in Congress calling on NATO to intervene to halt the genocide in Sudan. “We need to take action on both a military and diplomatic front to end the conflict,” he said.

  • protistEnglish
    4·
    6 months ago

    Syria and Libya dominated the news when their civil wars started and for some time afterward, but just like it has with Ukraine, coverage lessened over time. I’ve regularly seen Afghanistan in the news too, but what is there to report there besides what everyone expected the Taliban would do?

    Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was genuinely different than all of these other conflicts, which were mostly ethnic or sectarian in nature. The scope and scale of the Ukraine invasion dwarfs these other conflicts by a significant margin, and it’s being perpetrated by an influential geopolitical adversary of the entire western world that poses a threat beyond this conflict

    • mechoman444@lemmy.worldEnglish
      22·
      6 months ago

      Several conflicts and humanitarian crises in predominantly non-white majority countries have been overshadowed by events in predominantly white majority countries. Examples include:

      1. Rwandan Genocide (1994): Despite the mass slaughter of the Tutsi population by the Hutu majority, the international community and media were slow to respond and provide comprehensive coverage. The genocide claimed approximately 800,000 lives in just 100 days.

      2. Darfur Conflict (2003-present): The genocide in Darfur, Sudan, has seen the systematic killing, displacement, and starvation of the non-Arab population by government forces and allied militias. Despite its scale and brutality, it has often been eclipsed by other international events.

      3. Democratic Republic of Congo Conflicts (1996-present): The series of wars and ongoing conflicts in the DRC have resulted in millions of deaths, primarily due to violence, disease, and starvation. These conflicts have received sporadic and often insufficient coverage compared to conflicts in Europe or the Middle East.

      4. Yemeni Civil War (2014-present): Despite being one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, the war in Yemen has not received consistent media attention. The conflict has led to widespread famine and suffering, exacerbated by the blockade and bombing campaign led by Saudi Arabia.

      5. Ethiopian Tigray War (2020-present): The conflict in the Tigray region of Ethiopia has resulted in significant civilian casualties and displacement. While it has been reported, it has not garnered the same level of media attention as conflicts in Europe or other Western-centric issues.

      These examples highlight a troubling trend in global news coverage, where atrocities in non-white majority regions are often underreported, leading to a lack of international awareness and delayed action.