Sudan in Crisis: A Tale of Despair and Annihilation

Sudan has been engulfed in an internal armed conflict, starting in mid-April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which displaced the majority of the population and has led to a huge hunger crisis; in addition, there have been repeated reports of war crimes, crimes against humanity, as well as possibilities of genocide. Through humanitarian law and international criminal law, and conflict tracing, the roots of the conflict can be traced from the post-2019 political transition in the country and then a rapid expansion into Darfur and Kordofan. From a legal perspective, it identifies international legal instruments such as the Geneva Conventions, the Rome Statute, the Genocide Convention, and Council Resolution 1593, and argues that the International Criminal Court’s 2005 Darfur referral would not apply to the 2023 conflict. In comparison between national accountability measures (such as Sudan’s in-absentia death sentences against RSF commanders) and the response of the international community, it is pointed out that the current legal and institutional framework is, structurally speaking, simply too weak to stop or redress the situation appropriately in the case of violence. The conclusion is that this crisis’s lasting character should not be read as meaning that law doesn’t exist, but rather as a manifestation of a lack of political will and consistent enforcement of international justice. In this article, it is recommended that an enlarged, well-supported mechanism for accountability be established that is in line with the levels of suffering in Sudan.