Opinion: Power without responsibility - Sudan’s leaders burn the nation to escape accountability
Writing on Substack, our founder and CEO explores the conflict in Sudan, and the consequences of prioritising power over governance.
Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhan, head of the Sudanese Armed Forces, addresses the UN General Assembly’s seventy-ninth session. Photo: UN Photo/Loey Felipe
When the Sudanese government’s budget leaked in January 2021, it committed to security and defence spending of around US$3.6 billion, roughly a third of the country’s public revenues. In comparison, education was allocated just over US$112 million, 32 times less than the military spending.
This kind of disgusting disparity is what happens when leaders do not want to govern their country, but rule it.
No doubt that governing is a difficult business. It is something that requires the ability to understand trade-offs, appreciate that you may disappoint as many or perhaps more people than you please, and consider whether you want to make some short-term losses in exchange for longer-term benefits.
With all those responsibilities and more, perhaps it’s hardly surprising to see many leaders who are keen to shed the duties of power, and instead enjoy its trappings—the prestige, the acclaim, the opportunities for enrichment. So desperate to cling on to these powers are Sudanese rivals, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (commonly known as Hemedti), that they are currently fighting a war so disastrous that it has already caused the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.
The conflict that began when the two previous allies turned on each other in April last year has put 24.8 million people in Sudan in need of humanitarian assistance, with well over 10 million people displaced internally or abroad. Tens of millions face a famine that is entirely man made. In the face of this huge need, the international humanitarian appeal has still only raised half of the funding it needs to respond.
The appalling toll that the war between Burhan and Hemedti has exacted on the people of Sudan is beyond just these shocking figures. The heartbreaking reports of lives lost, homes ransacked, communities shattered, are too much to bear.