We are living in an era of information explosion. News from one end of the world reaches the other in seconds. We might be alarmed by the real-time updates flashing on our smartphone screens, pausing for a moment, but we quickly dive back into our daily routines. Buried beneath this digital noise is civilization’s deepest wound: the cry of humanity. From the rubble of Gaza to the burning villages of Sudan, the geography of this cry is vast, yet the corridors of world politics remain astonishingly silent.
For the past few months, the Gaza Strip has not just been a geographical region; it has become a synonym for the greatest humanitarian catastrophe of our time. What is unfolding is not a simple conflict; it is an unimaginable devastation unleashed upon a besieged population. The cries of children trapped under the rubble of bombed buildings, the streams of blood in hospital corridors, and the desperate faces of millions starving for food—these are not scenes from a movie; this is the daily reality of Gaza.
International law, human rights charters, or the rules of war—all seem to become ineffective at Gaza’s border. Medical facilities have virtually collapsed, children are dying of starvation, and an entire population is being slowly pushed towards death. The world is watching this devastation live. But astonishingly, there is no effective action to stop this brutality. Ceasefire resolutions in the UN Security Council are repeatedly stuck on the wall of vetoes or political interests. The very powerful nations that lecture on human rights are either directly fueling this destruction or observing a strategic silence. The tragic death of every Palestinian child in Gaza seems to have been reduced to just a number or ‘collateral damage’ in the eyes of the world’s conscience.
Just as the horror of Gaza dominates media headlines, one of the largest and most forgotten humanitarian crises of contemporary times is unfolding in the heart of Africa. In Sudan, the power struggle between the army led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti) has pushed the country into a horrific civil war.
This war is not just between two generals; it is a process of tearing a nation to pieces. Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, has turned into rubble, and the horror of ethnic cleansing has returned to regions like Darfur. Millions of people are internally displaced—statistics show this is currently the world’s largest internal displacement crisis. Tens of millions are on the brink of famine. Sexual violence against women and children has reached extreme levels.
Yet, Sudan’s outcry is not reaching the international community. Unlike Gaza, there are no real-time videos or high-profile journalists present here. Therefore, the death, rape, or starvation in Sudan holds no importance on the global political agenda. Regional powers are fighting their proxy wars in this conflict, while global powers either ignore the issue or it isn’t ‘strategically important’ enough for them, like Ukraine or the Middle East. The cries of the Sudanese people are thus fading away into the Sahara desert.
From Gaza to Sudan—the contexts are different, but the result is the same: the unimaginable suffering of ordinary people. And the common thread in both crises is the ‘shameless silence’ of world politics, or to put it more clearly, ‘strategic inactivity’.
This silence is not born of ignorance; it is a conscious political decision.
The Game of Geopolitical Interests: Today’s world order is based not on human rights, but on geopolitical interests. What is happening in Gaza is deeply intertwined with the balance of power in the Middle East. Similarly, behind the conflict in Sudan lies the geo-strategic importance of the Red Sea, control of gold mines, and the struggle for influence among regional powers. In this complex equation, the calculation of ordinary people’s lives and deaths becomes secondary.
The ‘Selective’ Application of Humanity: We live in a strange era of ‘selective empathy’. The suffering of people in some regions makes international headlines, while for people in other regions, it’s as if they were ‘born only to die’—such a perspective is at play. The victim’s religion, color, or geopolitical location determines how vocal the global conscience will be for them. This division is stark in the cases of Gaza and Sudan.
The Failure of International Institutions: The United Nations and other international institutions, which were created to protect world peace and human rights, have today become chess pieces for powerful nations. The misuse of veto power in the Security Council, the limitations of the International Criminal Court, and the double standards of powerful states—all of this proves that these institutions have lost their ability to protect the weak.
History bears witness that great humanitarian disasters have occurred not only because of aggression but also because of the silence of good or powerful people. When children in Gaza or Sudan die from starvation or bombs, not only the bomber or the gunman is responsible; we are also responsible—we who remain silent despite seeing this injustice, who fail to create effective pressure to stop this barbarity.
This silence of world politics is not just a moral defeat; it is a crime. It sends the message that in this world, power is the ultimate truth, and humanity or justice has no value. If this cry of humanity drifting from Gaza to Sudan cannot awaken our conscience, then we must understand that we are not just in a political or humanitarian crisis, we are facing a deep civilizational crisis. The responsibility to break this silence rests on all of us.
