We recently sat down for a conversation with Professor Christopher Tounsel, director of graduate studies for UW History as well as chair of the African Studies Program within the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at UW, about his public engagement raising awareness for the ongoing crisis in Sudan.
Your research focuses on modern Sudan. Currently, the country is witnessing one of the worst humanitarian crises in history. Could you briefly summarize the conflict for us that broke out in 2023? Is it correct to call it a civil war? Who are the fighting factions? Is this a religious conflict, an ideology fight, or rather a struggle over resources?
In April 2023, conflict erupted between two rival Sudanese groups: the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Following the 2019 ouster of longtime President Omar al-Bashir, a political transition was supposed to result in elections by the end of 2023. However, two military leaders–SAF leader General Abdel-Fattah Burhan and RSF leader General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo--undermined this democratic transition by staging a coup. The two men have been locked in a power struggle since 2021, and their dispute turned violent on April 15, 2023, when SAF and RSF forces began attacking one another.
While it is in some sense a civil war (waged between belligerents of the same country), it is not a conflict over ideology, religion, or secession; rather, it is principally being waged over the RSF’s desire to control more of the country’s economic assets, namely its gold mines.
How is the U.S. involved in this conflict?
The United States’ strategic interest in the crisis can be considered through the lens of Sudan’s geopolitical importance on the Red Sea coast and concern over regional contagion. The U.S. has been involved since the opening shots were fired, brokering an early ceasefire in late April 2023. While Sudan’s potential to prop up Moscow’s war effort would make Western leaders wary of the RSF gaining an upper hand in the current fighting, of perhaps more concern to Washington is the impact of an unstable Sudan on the region. In recent years, the U.S. has benefited from a warming relationship with Sudan’s leaders, especially through counterterrorism cooperation. The Trump administration will surely be fearful of Sudan’s instability providing the kind of conditions in which terrorist groups, such as al-Shabaab, may thrive. And yet, recent cuts to USAID (the United States Agency for International Development) has had a deleterious impact on humanitarian assistance for Sudanese impacted by the war.
Since the war broke out in 2023, you started giving interviews about the crisis in Sudan to various outlets including the BBC, Al Jazeera and Human Rights Watch. You are also featured on the NPR podcast Throughline. What motivated you to start talking to the media? What do you bring to the table as an expert of Sudanese history?
Being an historian of a country embroiled in an ongoing crisis has pushed me to take a more agile approach to my work. While I have dedicated most of my career to exploring earlier phases of Sudanese history, the war has challenged me to expand my intellectual toolkit from primarily focusing on Sudan’s past to helping raise awareness of the country’s complicated and violent present. The past is indeed never past, and in this vein I believe that as an historian I have a duty to properly contextualize the conflict to work against popular media representations of Africa (and Sudan specifically) as a place of indescribable chaos and conflict. Looking ahead, I would like to use my knowledge of Sudanese history and current affairs to raise consciousness and help bring an end to the harrowing events taking place in the country.
You recently co-organized the event "From Seattle to Sudan: A Global Forum on the Sudanese Civil War." Can you tell us more about this event? This event aimed to provide space for local Sudanese to share their stories of survival and migration. How big is the community of Sudanese immigrants in Seattle? What did you learn from listening to Sudanese migrants and refugees?
Last Fall, Yasir Zaidan–a Sudanese PhD candidate in the Jackson School of International Studies–reached out to me with the idea of organizing a local teach-in on the conflict. While we initially envisioned a small gathering led by the two of us, it became clear that the evolving humanitarian crisis necessitated an event of broader scope involving local Sudanese community members, experts, and activists. The Sudanese community in Washington is not as large as other East African populations like those from Ethiopia and Somalia, for example. Nonetheless, Washington State was home to approximately two thousand Sudanese according to the 2020 census.
At the April “From Seattle to Sudan” event, we were blessed to be joined by dozens of in-person and virtual attendees. Panelists included Sudanese who had fled the country when violence broke out, a former Sudanese Ambassador to the United States, a prominent local activist, and a legal scholar with extensive experience in Sudan’s human rights sector. Listening to their stories provided me with a human perspective on the trauma that is all too often lost in mainstream reporting on the war. Amid our focus on the crisis, I was surprised and encouraged by the overwhelming sense of community in the room. I’ll always treasure the chance to hear Sudanese Arabic spoken in the United States!
In comparison to other conflicts - for example the Israeli war on Gaza or Russia's invasion of Ukraine - the crisis in Sudan gains relatively little public attention. Why do you think this is the case? What type of public action would you like to see?
Around 150,000 people have been killed and more than eight million displaced by this conflict making it the world’s worst displacement crisis. Twenty-five million are in need of humanitarian assistance, and the country dons the unenviable mantle of being the hungriest country on earth.
Despite all this, you are correct–Sudan’s civil conflict has received relatively scant public attention compared with other tragedies. Within this context of imbalanced coverage, media outlets like National Public Radio and The Guardian have appropriately labeled the Sudan conflict as ‘The Forgotten War.’ Why is this the case? Whenever I have had the chance to speak on the war, I challenge audiences to consider the ways that race and racism impact media coverage on Sudan. I agree with the director of the World Health Organization, Tedros Ghebreyesus, who testifies to the perception of Africa’s supposed irrelevance.
What comes next? Do you have plans for future action to raise awareness for the crisis in Sudan? What can the readers of the history newsletter do to help the people in Sudan?
I would like to see increased media coverage of Sudan relative to other world conflicts, increased pressure on Sudanese and non-state actors to end the hostilities immediately, and to open unrestricted access to humanitarian aid to those whose lives have been devastated by this senseless war.
I plan to continue raising awareness about the crisis so long as it continues. This September I’ll be discussing the situation with members of the World Affairs Council in Olympia, and I’d like to continue working with local organizations to keep communities across metro Seattle informed.
Readers of the history newsletter can help people in Sudan by encouraging Congress to advocate for greater U.S. humanitarian assistance; read and share credible, Sudan-related news on social media using the #KeepEyesOnSudan hashtag; and consider donating to humanitarian organizations still active in Sudan like the UN World Food Programme. Everything helps!