There was a time when Darfur was all the rage among western, and particularly American, policy-makers. According to Richard Cockett, the SaveDarfurCoalition was once “the most politically inclusive and effective foreign-policy lobby group on Africa since the anti-apartheid movement of the 1980s.” But by 2016, when former Sudanese dictator Omar al-Bashir carried out chemical attacks in the Jebel Marra region, Darfur was far from the spotlight.
Indeed, while much media attention is rightfully given to the Syrian Arab victims of Assadist chemical warfare as well as Iraqi Kurds on the annual anniversary of the Halabja massacre, practically no coverage has been dedicated to the Bashir regime’s chemical attacks against Darfuri civilians. “The evidence of chemical weapons use provided in 2016 by Amnesty International is overwhelming,” long-time Sudan researcher Eric Reeves has stressed. “It is difficult to escape the conclusion that non-Arab/African lives in Darfur are suffering from a shocking moral discounting, the source of which is a ghastly combination of narrow self-interest and racism. The hypocrisy is beyond reckoning…or forgiving.”
The use of chemical warfare in Jebel Marra by the Bashir regime should not be seen as an isolated massacre but as a crime against humanity within a larger context of genocide in Darfur. Like many other countries in Africa, Sudan flirted with democratization during the last two decades of the 20th century. However, the push towards anti-authoritarianism never fully materialized and ultimately provided the Sudanese people, to quote Amir Idris, “neither a lasting peace nor a sustainable democracy.”
