Sudan’s forgotten war

Good morning. Today we’re delving into the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis — and it’s not Gaza or Ukraine. But first, here’s what else is going on:

• Larry Summers, Harvard’s former president, said he’ll step back from public commitments but continue teaching at the university after emails showed him corresponding with Jeffrey Epstein for a decade after Epstein pleaded guilty to sex crimes. The House plans to vote today to force the Trump administration to release all Epstein-related files.
• The Globe requested public records that could detail when LaMar Cook, a former aide to Governor Maura Healey ensnared in a cocaine bust last month, came and went from the Springfield state office building at the center of the case. Healey’s administration is refusing to release them.
• After federal agents stormed Bill May’s New Hampshire home, the Trump administration labeled him a cartel member. May says he isn’t — but is the face of America’s opioid crisis.

Today’s Starting Point

A long-running war in the northwest African country of Sudan has killed or displaced more civilians than any other active conflict on Earth, yet gets little attention from most Americans. Today’s newsletter explains why.

Tangled roots

Some of the underlying tensions — religious and ethnic — predate Sudan’s 1956 independence. But where a devastating civil war and humanitarian crisis in the country’s Darfur region decades ago was a story of rebel groups fighting Sudan’s government, today’s warring factions used to be on the same side. Together they overthrew the country’s long-serving president in a 2019 coup, then pushed aside its civilian leaders in 2021. 

But disagreements soon split the country’s military, called the Sudanese Armed Forces, from the Rapid Support Forces, the paramilitaries accused of murdering civilians in the city of El Fasher last month. They’ve been fighting ever since.

Attention deficit

The different reactions also have a lot to do with how America’s international priorities have shifted.

Obama pledged to make the Darfur crisis a “Day One” priority. But after his Sudan policy failed to safeguard legitimate elections, didn’t help the country become a democracy, and stoked dissent within his administration, his successors took the hint. The first Trump administration and the Biden administration showed little interest in Sudan.

President Trump’s current secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has tried to fix that; this month, Sudan’s military rejected a US-crafted ceasefire proposal. But other Trump initiatives have worsened the crisis. Elon Musk’s shuttering of USAID cut off funds that helped feed Sudanese civilians. So far, famine and fighting have killed as many as 400,000 people.

Points of Interest

Boston: A judge granted bond to three of the nine carwash workers ICE detained earlier this month. 

Massachusetts: Lower-income tenants in Randolph say their living conditions deteriorated after corporate landlords bought their buildings, worsening the city’s already high eviction rate.

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