By: Lauryn Carr
Summaries of three current genocidal crises to educate yourself on: Congo, Palestine, and Sudan.
Congo: Eastern Congo Conflict
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/02/01/1152893248/red-cobalt-congo-drc-mining-siddharth-
Photo by: Junior Kannah /AFP via Getty Images
Currently in Congo, there has been increased violence, civilian casualties and displacement over one of Congo’s leading resources, cobalt, and this crisis became known as a “silent genocide”. According to the World Bank, Congo Wars (concluded in 2003) did not bring significant changes to conflict, displacement, and poverty.
The ongoing violence and insecurity in the region is mainly caused by the western world’s exploitation of their various beneficial resources, focusing on cobalt, being a critical mineral used in many kinds of technological machinery. Nations like the U.S., UK, and France have handed Rwanda and Uganda military and financial aid to help invade these cobalt-rich locations, causing the Congolese people to face violence in their own homes.
As stated in the World Bank, The Democratic Republic of Congo is one of the poorest nations globally, despite its vast wealth. There are reports showing that 62% of Congolese lived on less than $2.15 a day in 2022. Due to cobalt being essential for electronic devices, electric vehicles, and lithium-ion batteries, according to The Republic, about 40,000 children among 255,000 citizens are working in mines, and there have been up to 2,000 deaths from cobalt mining incidents annually.
Along with the mining incidents, citizens of Congo have been facing torture, various kinds of assault, and displacement from their homes. Stated in World Without Genocide, 4.5 million people have been internally displaced and there are 3 million refugees. There has been a major increase in child mortality(death) rates due to famine and malnutrition. There is a loss of not only sanitary environments, but food and water. Their resources may be critical to pay for the advancement of technology, but Congolese people should not be mandated to pay for their home, their famine, and most of all, the millions of innocent lives taken.
Palestine: Palestinian-Israeli Conflict
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20231018-israel-palestine-war-might-create-risks-at-energy-supplies-expert-says/
Photo by: Ashraf Amra/Anadolu Agency
A simple worded analogy to help you understand the history and context of this situation before exploring this crisis can be described with a house. Imagine you are forcefully sharing a house with someone you would not prefer to, and they begin to kick you out of your living room at first, then suddenly they claim the kitchen, and the next thing you know you are locked in your basement. This stranger slowly begins to control everything and you have nowhere to go, no escape. You call some locals to help you fight back, even if their methods are not what you’d want, considering you wish for peace, it is your only option. Now, you are in the wrong, in a home that was originally your own. Palestinians have been displaced and murdered for the past 75 years, and according to OCHA, The war on the Gaza Strip has extended to its 8th week, as well as been suffering from a power outage since October 11, following the cutoff of electricity supplies by Israeli authorities. The UN experts point to grave violations by Israel against Palestinians, highlighting that the genocide has been continuous since October 7th, with over 14,800 innocent civilians killed, while in Israel, the official death toll from Hamas before the war stands at about 1,200. The conflict intensified after attacks by Hamas, but Israel's 16-year illegal blockade of Gaza significantly adds to the crisis, preventing the escape of innocent civilians, leaving them without essentials like food, water and healthcare. The conviction rate (declaration that someone is guilty of a crime) in Israeli courts is over 99%, where the likelihood that allegations against Palestinians has a conviction rate of just 1.8%. Reported by Save the Children, who has been actively working with Palestinian children since 1953, there have also been restrictions on movement, home demolitions, and forced displacement, significantly impacting children's lives in the West Bank. 53% of children who were consulted were arrested during night raids, in their own home, between the times of midnight and dawn, without being told why they are arrested or where they are taken to. They were continuously searched and stripped of themselves and information, threatened with harm if not told during these interrogations. Said by a Palestinian man reported by Aljazeera, “I have nowhere to go back to even if [the Israelis] allow us to go back to Gaza City. My house was bombed and completely destroyed on the third day of the war.” Another civilian, Mahmoud, said how “so many Palestinians have been surrounded by destruction and blood, and the bodies of loved ones and family members.” According to the UN, 2.1 million Palestinians in oPt are in need of humanitarian aid, with half being adolescents. An Israeli soldier stated himself in an interview with CNN that “The war is not just with Hamas, the war is with all the civilians.” A war where half of the population is children? Also stated by the UN, children constitute 41% of those killed, and 25% are women, with an alarming statistic of one child killed and two injured every 10 minutes during the war. Also, Biden has aided Israel with $14.3 billion, which has left many confused. He is aiding a genocidal crisis, while there are also citizens in the country he is president of on the streets with no home. The question stands at how much more he is going to prove the capability for violence when there are already 55,200 housing units completely destroyed, 160,700 partially damaged, and 117 health facilities, 223 schools, 821 industrial facilities, 177 press offices, 75 mosques, and three churches targeted and destroyed. To be human is to stand against this ethnic cleanse of a genocide.
Sudan: The Darfur Crisis
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/10/corpses-on-streets-sudans-rsf-kills-1300-in-darfur-monitors-say
Photo by: El Tayeb Siddig/Reuters
The country's civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces is now being expressed as a massive humanitarian crisis, which Sudan cannot endure. Humanitarians are described to be feeling overwhelmed, with families not having resources they need for survival. There have been reports of child malnutrition, women being raped, and how some children may never be able to attend a school.
The Darfur Genocide, being carried out against the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups, has led the International Crime Court to bring several people to court for crimes against humanity like forced transfer, torture, and rape. According to the University of Connecticut, genocidal actions in Darfur have persisted for over two decades. Also stated in the Guardian, ethnopolitical tensions and competition over scarce resources, fertile land, and water resources in Darfur, which causes a struggle for power between RSF and SAF, lead to widespread violence.
In historical context, members of the RSF in Darfur have committed other abuses, like ethnically motivated killings, targeted abuses against human rights activists and defenders, conflict-related sexual violence, and looting and burning of communities.
According to BNN Bloomberg, both Sudan’s army and the RSF have major stakes in Sudan’s gold industry and are accused by activists and human-rights groups of smuggling large amounts of illicit metal out of the country. The country has produced about 2 tons of gold since conflict began on April 15. Reported by the Sudanese Mineral Resources Co. last year, Sudan officially exported 34.5 tons of gold worth more than $2 billion. Stated in The Economist, 10,000 citizens have been murdered between April and November of 2023 and approximately 6.3 million people displaced, adding to the 3.7 million displaced in previous bouts of violence. Also, there have also been an estimated 800 to 1,300 Masalit individuals killed in a three-day attack in a refugee camp. This has recently been described by the UN as “one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent history.” The innocent civilians of Sudan have been going through economic destruction, with their banking system collapsing and disrupting supply chains, leading to 20 million people facing food shortages. Their healthcare is fatal, as doctors without borders, after delivering over 5,000 life saving surgeries, cannot be utilized anymore as military authorities have blocked the transport of medical resources for more than a month. The UN reports at least 8,000 fleeing Ardamata to Chad since June.
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SOURCES:
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/nov/21/sudans-cycle-of-violence-there-is-a-genocide-going-on-in-west-darfur
https://today.uconn.edu/2023/09/genocide-fears-in-darfur-have-attracted-little-attention-have-nations-abandoned-their-responsibility-to-protect-civilians/
https://opt.savethechildren.net
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/10/corpses-on-streets-sudans-rsf-kills-1300-in-darfur-monitors-say
https://republic.com.ng/october-november-2023/congo-cobalt-genocide/
http://worldwithoutgenocide.org/genocides-and-conflicts/congo
https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/11/gaza-un-experts-call-international-community-prevent-genocide-against
https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/friday-17-november-twenty-thousand-palestinians-believed-be-killed-israels-genocide-gaza-enar
https://www.unicefusa.org/what-unicef-does/childrens-health/nutrition?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiA9ourBhAVEiwA3L5RFvKL0pAvB4XWwNRcHXLrIM3u4_ImTnsaOcFxxaY1PRic8gh9uNirxhoC01sQAvD_BwE
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/24/displaced-people-attempt-to-return-home-across-gaza-as-truce-sets-in#:~:text=Israel's%20war%20has%20killed%20more,war%20stands%20at%20about%201%2C200.
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