Twenty-nine years ago, an unforgettable injustice happened in Africa. On the morning of April 7 1994, the people of Rwanda woke up to the sounds of gunshots and armed militias hoisting machetes on the streets. Soon, the machetes were tearing through the flesh of every Tutsi person and “moderate” Hutus in sight, including women and children. By the end of the massacre, more than half a million people would be dead.
Unlike many other genocides in the world where intervention by the international community is swift and where condemnation is loud, the Rwanda Genocide was met with an audible silence, particularly in the early days when the devastation could have been stopped. Not a single country intervened forcefully to save the helpless Tutsi, Hutu and Twa people who were being viciously massacred. Not a single agency, not even the United Nations, intervened for the people of Rwanda. The world watched them die.
A thousand European troops arrived in Rwanda just hours and days into the conflict to escort European citizens and personnel out of the country. Using commercial and military planes and vehicles, European and American nationals were swiftly removed from what was turning into a brutal killing field and taken back to safety. And this can be understood – those countries had to protect their own nationals. But it was after what those one thousand European troops did afterwards that is unthinkable. You see, after the evacuation, the troops did not stay behind to help those who were being killed. They evacuated their own citizens and left Africans behind, including those who had worked in their embassies. They left women who had, for many years, raised their children and looked after their homes. They left men who had been their drivers and colleagues. It was a painful reminder that the lives of Africans are of little value – and that even in the face of certain death, those lives are not worth saving.
Two weeks ago, armed conflict between rival factions of the Sudanese military started. While the conflict was initially concentrated in the capital city of Khartoum, it soon spread to the Darfur region and other areas. By the end of April, hundreds of people had been killed and thousands injured. Many of these are civilians. The war in Sudan has sparked a humanitarian and refugee crisis. According to the United Nations, at least 100,000 have fled the country while five million have been internally displaced. Many of those fleeing are entering neighbouring South Sudan, Chad, Ethiopia and the Central African Republic by bus or on foot. Tragically, those countries are themselves unstable as they are dealing with their own conflicts.
Just days into the war, high-income and middle-income countries began the evacuation of their citizens. Reminiscent of the evacuations in Rwanda back in 1994, military and commercial planes were sent into Sudan to evacuate those whose countries have the means to extricate themselves from the war. Citizens of poor nations, many of them Africans and Latin Americans, were left to the mercy of God – and of the bombs and bullets of warring armies. The war is escalating and claiming more casualties. As with the Rwanda Genocide, the world is watching the massacre on television screens.
The African Union, working with partner agencies, needs to develop an evacuation strategy for the continent, pooling in resources equitably. This way, the cruel injustices that occur in evacuations, where the rich are a priority and the poor are left to fend for themselves, can be alleviated. Rwanda was a lesson – Sudan must be the wake up call.
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