The Gold Rush Behind a Civil War
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is Andrew Ross Sorkin, the founder of Dealbook. Every year, I interview some of the world's most influential leaders across politics, culture, and business at the Dealbook Summit, a live event in New York City. On this year's podcast, you'll hear my unfiltered conversations with Gavin Newsom, the CEO of Palantir and Anthropic, and Erica Kirk, the widow of Charlie Kirk. Listen to Dealbook Summit wherever you get your podcasts.
What recent events have reignited global attention on Darfur?
From The New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams, and this is The Daily. What we're about to talk about next might be the most undercovered story of human misery on planet Earth. Twenty years ago, a genocidal campaign in the Darfur region of Sudan shocked the world. Now, videos and images of new atrocities have captured global attention once more. About 150,000 people have been killed. Some 12 million displaced, half of them children.
How has the conflict in Sudan evolved over the years?
As another bloody conflict has returned to the region.
This week, the people of Al-Fashr, beaten and threatened, fled for their lives from a murderous militia that films itself unleashing ferocious violence.
Today, my colleague Declan Walsh on what has become the worst humanitarian conflict in decades and the precious metal that is fueling it. It's Monday, November 10th. Declan, in recent weeks, there have been many horrific images coming out of Sudan, including what appear to be these very graphic execution videos. And this is all occurring as part of a civil war that you have been covering since the start. Tell me what has happened in Darfur over the past couple of weeks.
Well, after 18 months of a pretty brutal siege led by this paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces, which had been trying to seize control of this city called al-Fasher. It was the last major urban center in western Sudan that was beyond its control. It finally broke the siege and its troops seized the entire city. They expelled the Sudanese military from it. And what followed was really days of reports of atrocities against about a quarter million civilians who'd been trapped inside the city. First, we saw these videos start to come out showing bodies piled in buildings, sometimes fighters executing wounded people lying on the ground, often quite casually. These videos, it must be said, are filmed by the fighters themselves as kind of trophies for the war, which is a pattern we've seen since the start of the Sudan war.
And since then, that's been added to by accounts from witnesses, from people who fled the city, from aid groups, and now from open source investigators who are using satellite images to try and determine what's been happening in El Fasher. And just last week, a new report from one of those groups saying that they had uncovered evidence that 80 people had been killed in one specific incident. Others have found traces, in fact, from satellites of blood on the sands of the area around El Fasher.
This is, of course, coming 20 years after another bloody conflict made Darfur basically a byword for human rights atrocities. Can you talk to us about what is different this time?
That's right. I mean, 20 years ago, Darfur, in fact, became synonymous with the word genocide. And that's because at that time, there was an armed militia called the Janjaweed that was leading a lot of the killing in Darfur, a conflict that killed as many as 300,000 people. The difference this time is that the Janjaweed has been replaced by another group called the Rapid Support Forces, effectively its descendant. That group is better armed than ever before. In the past, the Janjaweed fought with horses and camels. This time, the Rapid Support Forces have got armored vehicles, extremely sophisticated Chinese drones. Last time, the Janjaweed were fighting alongside Sudan's army. This time, it's fighting against the army.
And its ambitions are no longer limited to control of Darfur. It's part of this struggle for control of the entire country. Since the war started over two years ago, at least 12 million people have been forced from their homes in Sudan.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:31
2
What recent events have reignited global attention on Darfur?
0:31–1:01
3
How has the conflict in Sudan evolved over the years?
1:01–6:39
4
What atrocities are being reported in El Fasher?
6:39–22:29
5
What distinguishes the current conflict from the previous genocide in Darfur?
22:29–28:56
Speakers
5 identifiedMore from The Daily
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