“The humanitarian crisis in Sudan deserves the world’s attention and outrage,” written by Nayyera Haq, assistant dean for Maxwell's Washington programs, was published on MSNBC. Following is an excerpt:

It’s the humanitarian crisis that almost no one wants to talk about despite several global powers exacerbating the civil war and trying to use Sudan for their own advantages.

We need to talk about why that is, why 4 million people fleeing their homes—a number roughly equivalent to the population of Oklahoma — hasn’t garnered more attention. The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is a background beat in the cadence of American news; while people disagree on whether starvation is being used as a weapon of war, the details and images of the conflict are readily available in our devices, and we experience a type of unfiltered access to what’s happening there.

People pore over every aid convoy movement and military strike launched since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, using those details to analyze what should, can or will happen to the more than 2 million residents of Gaza. We should care about what’s happening to humans in Gaza, whether they be Palestinian or Israeli.

We should also care what’s happening in Sudan. We are objectively not seeing the same level of online discourse or public empathy for the people living in unspeakable conditions there. It’s not that Sudan lacks national security or global trade importance; world and regional powers like Russia, China, the UAE and Saudi Arabia are deeply involved in the current conflict.

It is fair to look at this dynamic—and our individual consumption of global news—and ask if the relative lack of concern about this crisis unfolding in Africa is because the people at the center of it are Black.