Op-ed: A land abandoned – The cost of global silence on Darfur

By Ikhlass Ahmed

I write this not only from a place of pain but from the centre of an open wound, one that has been bleeding for over two decades. I write because silence has never saved us. And today, once again, global silence is enabling genocide. What is happening in Darfur is nothing new. This is a continuation of a deliberate campaign, based on racial persecution, militarised patriarchy, and a policy of extermination. Since 2003, non-Arab groups in Darfur, the Fur, the Masalit, the Zaghawa, have faced persecution for who they are, and retribution for daring to survive.

The war that officially broke out in Sudan in April 2023 only began to peel back the curtain on what we in Darfur have long known to be a given, that our land was already under siege, and our people under attack. El Fasher stood alone for over 500 days until it was captured by the RSF in October 2023. We warned the world. We documented what was coming. But when it did happen, there was no outcry. No outrage. Nothing but the hollow sound of an indifferent international.

The fall of El Fasher wasn’t all a military affair; it was a slow-motion massacre. In just a few hours, the horror started; mass executions, ethnic profiling, abductions, and sexual violence of such a gruesome scale. On October 27, we at the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) Network reported 52 cases of rape and gang rape in one day, the highest we had recorded in our records. Girls as young as 14. Mothers. Grandmothers.

We are observing a war waged with women’s bodies, a war meant not just to be bloody, but to tear down communities. Rape is a weapon, a tool not just of violence but of erasure. One woman, a survivor I met in Adre in April 2023, faced me in the eye, and said: “They raped me in 2004. Again in 2021. And again in 2023. How many times am I left in a position to survive the same war again?”

Her words are nothing out of the ordinary. They are a symptom of a thousand others carrying the same scars. Survivors are fighting not only for their lives, but against the silence that surrounds them. The thing that scares me most is that this war is turning into slow annihilation. In Zalingei, Fur women report that they’re living as slaves. In all over Darfur, RSF personnel occupy detention centres, where women are held, some in sexual captivity.

Whole communities are being dismantled by a power that views them not as citizens but as disposable. And yet, even in the darkness, I see light. Many women who have survived rape now lead community kitchens to feed other displaced families in many parts of Darfur. In Tawila, survivors are helping peers hold space for each other in psychosocial groups. Women are risking their lives in Tura to deliver medicines, to transport survivors to safer ground. And, grassroots networks are keeping hope alive, not because they’re funded, but because they think no woman should ever feel abandoned by the world again.

At SIHA, we do what we can. We deliver medical care, safe relocation, legal documentation, and psychosocial support. We build survivor networks. But the fact is that’s not enough. The world needs to do more than observe a crisis. We cannot wait 20 more years for justice. The ICC’s conviction of Ali Kushayb this year was historic, but it’s not enough. His crimes are just a part of what has been done. The women of Darfur cannot afford to have to wait for each perpetrator to go to the courts. They need support now. Reparations now. Dignity now. Darfur is not only a location of suffering. It is a place of resilience. It is a place where women are constructing futures while the world turns away. One thing I ask is this:

Do not let this be one more forgotten war. Don’t let us become just another footnote for posterity. See us. Hear us. Stand with us. Because Darfur is still burning, but its people are still standing.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the contributing author or media and do not necessarily reflect the position of Radio Dabanga.

Ikhlass Ahmed is a Sudanese women’s rights defender and crisis response advocate, working with the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA Network) from Darfur. She coordinates protection efforts for women refugees and internally displaced people from Darfur, focusing on legal empowerment, survivor-centred support, and community-based protection mechanisms. She has led extensive documentation and advocacy work on conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) and has participated in numerous international forums, including a briefing to the UN Security Council, where she presented on the scale and urgency of CRSV in Sudan. Her work centres on amplifying the voices of survivors and pressing for justice, protection, and accountability.