By Jack Bernard, contributing columnist
PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. | Let me applaud international and United States groups which want to end needless slaughter overseas. Peaceful protests are one way of expressing indignation and obtaining meaningful change. However, the efforts of these groups must be balanced—and they have not been.
The Jewish state of Israel has been singled out by the left while mass slaughters in the Sudan and Nigeria have been ignored by both the right and left. This is antisemitic, plus its clearly and horribly racist implying that African nations are not worth the West’s sympathy.
Although I am a Zionist, I have always advocated for a two-state solution whereby Palestinians get their own state. Interestingly, the Trump-brokered peace plan is virtually the same as what numerous others have long advocated, that is, an outside group of Arab leaders managing the transition. The key is that both Hamas and Israel have finally agreed to what has been obvious all along.
Maybe now the world will finally decide to address the horrendous slaughter that continues in Africa. It is a travesty that both the left and right have ignored for so long.
In the Sudan, as documented by the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Office, both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have committed large scale atrocities, including murder and rape. These war crimes are caused by two competing Sudanese generals who are seeking absolute power. The conflict began over two years ago, resulting in the displacement of 12 million civilians, by far the largest forced migration in recent history.
It is difficult to know the exact number of casualties. But, in testimony to Congress in 2024, U.S. special envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello estimated that the number of dead may have exceed 150,000 people with many killed since. It is believed that there were 61,000 men women and children murdered in Khartoum state alone.
Nigeria is just as dismal a story, if not worse in many aspects. There are numerous armed groups fighting the central government. Because of space, this column will zero-in on only the most violent—Boko Haram. Since 2009, Sunni group Boko Haram (and a breakaway group called ISWAP) has been engaged in terrorist activity designed to purge all Shia Muslims and Christians from Nigeria’s Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states. It has attacked numerous churches during worship.
According to the World Health Organization, over 10 million people have been displaced in Northeast Nigeria alone due to the Islamists terror group Boko Haram. Other groups have lower, but still startling, estimates. One UN agency recently indicated that in just one region of Nigeria there are currently nearly three million “internally displaced people” and nearly four million men, women and children facing food insecurity in Nigeria alone.
Since the rise of Boko Haram, an estimated 125,000 Christians and 60,000 Shia Muslims have been murdered in Nigeria by this terrorist group. About 1,000 Christians are still being slaughtered every month.
Sudan and Nigeria are humanitarian disasters. But both have been virtually ignored by both the left- and right-wing pressure groups in the USA. After all, they are in Africa, per President Trump- “(bad phrase)” countries.
Is that what the rest of us believe? If not, contact your Congressman to move Sudan and Nigeria up on the priority list.
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