US Involvement In The Sudanese Civil War

U.S. Involvement in the Sudanese Civil War “One of the world’s most brutal and longest-running armed conflicts claimed over two million lives due to government-backed mass murder, enforced starvation, and scorched-earth tactics that amounted to genocide” (“Operation Broken Silence”). The 22-year civil war in Sudan has caused massive destruction including social, cultural and economical problems for Sudan and has also affected other countries around the world. One of these countries includes the United States. There is great controversy about whether or not the United States should have gotten more involved with the civil war in Sudan. Some people believe that getting more involved would have caused more trouble to the U.S.; however if the
was involved in the development of the country. There are some things that the U.S. tried to do in order to provide assistance before the war had begun. According to the U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice, “the U.S. has been as active as anyone” (Hamilton). They played an important role in providing bilateral aid before civil war broke out. However, when the first civil war started, the U.S. backed off in supplying Sudan and helping them because the conflict did not involve them. The U.S. military did not want to get involved in a civil war. At that time, Sudanese people began to struggle. Throughout the first civil war, the U.S. stayed mostly neutral. After the Sudanese government began to increase their target of civilians through bombing and denial of humanitarian relief, the United States started to respond. After the first war started to die down, the U.S. contributed to the “Operation Lifeline Sudan” which delivered food into the government area of Sudan. At first, it seemed like it was successful. But later, “OLS was criticized as being unsustainable and it ‘only responded to immediate needs and failed to address underlying causes of the crisis’”
was more involved but not efficiently. The government passed the Sudan Peace Act in October of 2002. After 17 years of excruciating war, the U.S. finally decided to get more involved and provide more assistance. They did send money to southern Sudan, but the money was said to have gone towards the government and not towards helping the Sudanese people. The U.S. also began to confront the Sudanese government about the conflict and concluded that the actions of the Sudanese government were genocide. However, this did not end the government fighting and the civil war continued. If the U.S. would have taken action sooner, before the first civil war began or during the war, it could have prevented or decreased the loss of thousands of Sudanese civilians.
“After decades of brutal civil war that left two and a half million dead, the devastated and vastly underdeveloped southern part of Sudan secured independence in 2011” (“South Sudan: The World’s Newest Country”). The United States was one of the key factors in Sudan gaining independence. The encouragement of the U.S. helped push South Sudan to be more independent. At that time, South Sudan was no longer with North Sudan, the conflict still continued and the civil war went