Sudan’s ongoing civil war has created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, with the Council on Foreign Relations reporting over 150,000 deaths, and tens of millions facing displacement and extreme famine. Despite this, the Sudanese Civil War has seen little media coverage compared to other ongoing conflicts.
Sudan is one of the largest, least developed and most war-torn countries on the entire continent of Africa. For centuries, it was ruled from abroad, colonized by empires such as the Ottomans, the Egyptians and the British. Since Sudan’s establishment in 1956, it has seen only 10 full years of peace, undergoing 20 coups and three civil wars within its existence.
The Sudanese Civil War began in April of 2023, when fighting broke out as an escalated power struggle between the two main factions of the military regime: The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), internationally recognized as the government in the conflict, and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The war has been primarily fought using guerrilla warfare tactics, including the use of drones, the weaponization of water, artillery and ground battles.
Race and religion have played large roles in the ongoing civil war, largely driven by a historical divide between the Arab-Muslim north and the predominantly African-Christian/animist south. For two decades, this divide has been exacerbated by government policies that have deliberately favored an Arab and Islamic identity, leading to the economic and political marginalization of non-Arab populations, specifically in the Darfur region.
Over the last two years, both the RSF and SAF have committed war crimes, engaging in discriminatory killings, sexual assault, and causing country-wide starvation and mass civilian displacement. The United States and many UN officials have acknowledged these horrors, stating that genocide and ethnic cleansing are taking place in Sudan.
Despite the humanitarian toll of Sudan’s Civil War, the conflict has received remarkably little international media coverage. According to the Mediterranean Strategic Studies Foundation, Sudan averaged about 600 news stories a month in 2024. While this number may seem significant, conflicts such as Ukraine and Gaza received upwards of 100,000 stories per month.
Mark Sheftal, a military historian at the U.S. Army War College, believes that complexity is one of the driving factors for the Sudanese Civil War’s low coverage.
“The conflict is so intricate that it’s difficult to pin one side as the villain,” he said. “People often have a very hard time keeping track of all the factions involved, which makes it less appealing for broad coverage.” Sheftal also criticized global indifference. “Tragically, a lot of people simply don’t care about Africa, or hold such low expectations: So many catastrophic crises are ignored by the international public.”
Today, news coverage can be shaped by what audiences are perceived to care about. Myron Belkind, a retired international journalist and executive for Associated Press News, explains that “Stories that feel immediate, controversial, or easy to understand are more likely to make front pages. Distant conflicts or complex crises rarely get the spotlight.” Belkind’s reasoning suggests why the Sudanese Civil War has received such little attention, despite its humanitarian toll. He also pointed to the Western World’s obsession with the Middle East.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), when global attention shifts away from human suffering, international aid can often be delayed or limited, with political pressure to protect civilians weakened. “The lack of media coverage hasn’t just been a journalistic oversight; it’s had real consequences,” Sheftall said.
Both Sheftall and Belkind urge citizens to understand the realities of the world around them.
“Awareness and Advocacy can transform distant crises to urgent calls for action,” said Belkind. “We must stay informed and demand accountability.”
