The United States Hypocrisy, Crystal Clear

Al-Obaid Ahmed Murawih

Call it hypocrisy, if you will, or call it contradiction. The important thing is that, in the end, it is an unethical act that does not align with any human-made law or divine religion. This is the apt description of the current U.S. administration’s actions towards Sudan, specifically what its special envoy to Sudan, Tom Perriello, is doing—not in his person but in his symbolism!

The current U.S. administration fills the media space with cries, through its envoy, its representative at the UN Security Council, and its humanitarian organisations, about the “catastrophe facing the people of Sudan due to the ongoing war.” They speak of the hunger threatening millions of lives, the suffering of the displaced, whose numbers have reached a global record, the plight of children in their health and their deprivation of education. They speak—somewhat bashfully—of the daily violations of international humanitarian law, cases of rape and enforced disappearances, and the shelling of civilians who become its victims overnight. And after this long list of violations and crimes, they say: The war must stop, and for it to stop, the two generals (or their delegates) must meet to decide on a “near-ready” plan for a temporary ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid—food and medicine—to flow to those in need, and then develop this temporary ceasefire into a permanent agreement.

You ask me: Where’s the problem with that?

I answer: There is no problem; in fact, this is what’s needed. Millions of Sudanese are suffering due to the ongoing war, and this suffering must stop. But isn’t it necessary to first identify the party responsible for this suffering? Why does this party insist on continuing this behaviour?

This is the question the U.S. administration tries to avoid asking and, consequently, answering. They attempt to leap over its implications by merely calling for the war to stop.

Millions of Sudanese have indeed been displaced from their cities and villages, wandering aimlessly within Sudan and abroad, becoming vulnerable to hunger, disease, oppression, rape, and murder. The reason for this is the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which have occupied their homes, expelled them and killed those who tried to resist. Sudanese people don’t need proof from anyone—neither a local investigative committee, an international organisation, nor the Security Council—for this. They have lived through it themselves for nearly two years. It’s been a continuous series since mid-April of last year, with the entire world witnessing how thousands of women, children, the elderly, and others flee any city or village the RSF enters, either to the nearest neighbouring country or to safe cities in Sudan that the rebellion’s guns have not tainted.

The whole world, led by the United Nations, international organisations, and the U.S. Agency for International Development, knows that officers and soldiers of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) looted food and medicine warehouses in Khartoum, Wad Madani and elsewhere, as well as the means of transporting and distributing them. This directly caused most of the humanitarian suffering that U.S. officials talk about.

The whole world knows, especially American officials, that the party that seized the farmers’ machinery and transportation in the states of Khartoum, Al-Gezira, Sennar, White Nile, Kordofan, and Darfur, as well as their seeds, depriving them of engaging in agricultural activities and directly worsening the food production crisis, is the RSF.

The world’s leaders, represented by the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, including the United States, along with the other non-permanent members, condemned on June 13th the siege, starvation, and destruction of hospitals and civilian facilities in the city of El-Fasher. They called for lifting the siege, halting the shelling, and stopping the destruction, knowing better than anyone else that the RSF was responsible for this. However, the RSF has ignored their statements and has continued to this day to launch successive waves of attacks on the city, bomb healthcare facilities and residential neighbourhoods, and prevent relief convoys from reaching the city!

America knows all of this, knows the party responsible for the suffering of the Sudanese people, and knows the external parties supplying them with money, weapons, and political and media support. Yet, it does not want to tell them to stop so that the suffering of the Sudanese people can end. It doesn’t even want to issue a word of reproach but instead calls for the war to stop, arguing that its continuation will only cause more suffering for civilians!

Not far from Sudan, the Palestinian people in Gaza are subjected to genocide, facing all kinds of crimes and violations. But America does not demand that the aggressor state stop the killing and destruction of Palestinians and their civilian infrastructure. Instead, it supplies the aggressor with all kinds of munitions, both smart and dumb, to continue the killing and destruction of hospitals, schools, and homes. The situation has escalated to the point where the American president himself declared that it is too early to talk about a ceasefire in Gaza. They do not even demand that the crossings be opened to allow humanitarian aid to reach those in need!

If what the U.S. administration is doing and saying regarding what is happening in Sudan and Palestine is not the very essence of hypocrisy, political thuggery, and double standards, then what is it, for God’s sake?”