The Forgotten War… An article in Newsweek: Sudan is the World’s Most Abandoned Conflict-Affected Country

The past year witnessed the outbreak of devastating wars and conflicts around the world, but the conflict in Sudan – which turned into a large-scale war last April – received weak coverage from Western media, as it is seen as less important than the wars in Gaza Strip and Ukraine, according to An article in the American magazine Newsweek.

The author of the article, Muhammad Al-Bendari, an independent researcher who previously taught journalism in the United States and New Zealand, believes that there is ambiguity in the West’s positions towards what is happening in Sudan, “because we rarely saw reports about it last year in the press” about the challenges this war there poses to other African countries, including Egypt, and unstable countries in the Sahel region, East and North Africa.

Likewise, there was little coverage of the peace summit held in Egypt in July to discuss the negative repercussions of Sudan’s war on its seven neighboring countries, the writer says.

With Western media busy covering other conflicts, such as the wars raging in Gaza and Ukraine, the Sudanese people remain stuck in a conflict “not of their making” with widespread hunger.

When comparing the West’s coverage of these three wars, any media researcher can notice that there is a media shortcoming in how news of the Sudan war is reported, according to the author, who adds that Sudanese refugees fleeing the conflict are often portrayed as “weak, naive and backward.”

The article concludes that the “weak” Western media coverage of the war in Sudan weakened the chances of launching peace initiatives that would put an end to the war between the army and the Rapid Support Forces.

The writer concludes by advising the Western media on the need to expand its coverage of events in Sudan, and Africa in general, beyond the issue of the “terrifying influx” of Sudanese and African refugees to the West.