Sudan is suffering from a civil war with an absence of assistance and aid from global superpowers, turning the country into the 21st century’s version of Rwanda. 

As the United States evacuates Americans from Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, the Sudanese are self-destructing with ethnic cleansing and other devastations.

Sudanese conflict is nothing new, as the formerly united country was divided into two separate establishments – South Sudan and Sudan – in 2011. 

Sudan’s current conflict escalated in April as Sudan’s armed forces and paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces, broke out into violent disputes. According to NPR.org, “The two are engaged in a power struggle over who gets to run the resource-rich nation that sits at the crossroads between North Africa, the Sahel (region), the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea.” 

Sudan’s current situation is reminiscent of what happened in the small East African country of Rwanda in the 1990s.

According to Worldvision.org, “From April through June 1994, the U.N. estimates that 800,000 Rwandans were brutally slaughtered by fellow citizens in a state-led genocide targeting the Tutsi ethnic group. About 75% of the Tutsi population was killed.”

Despite three months of terror, all the United States did was evacuate the Americans trapped in Rwanda, leaving the Tutsi and moderate Hutus abandoned in war.

The United States leaving a developing country to fend for itself in a period of uncertainty is entirely contradictory to America’s role as a global superpower. This is a recurring theme among developing countries, which shows how the supposed superpowers consider them to be unimportant.

The United States needs a stronger presence in resolving overseas conflicts. It is one of the most powerful countries in the world and is capable of establishing peace in smaller countries. The United States has taken on a big role in the defense of Ukraine by providing the country with military equipment and funding. However, when it comes to smaller, so-called “Third World” countries, the United States disregards its circumstances. 

As a rich and powerful country, America must put its wealth to use by helping such countries that are in crisis. 

It is more often than not that major powers turn a blind eye to smaller and defenseless countries. If these countries garnered the same amount of uproar as Western countries did, action would be taken regarding their conflicts and disputes.