US Aid Flows to Sudan's Rapid Support Forces, Media Ignores History
When The New Arab details the massacre of 200 people by Sudan's RSF, it's rightfully presented as barbarity. What's often overlooked, however, is the inconvenient truth about the US's historical entanglement with Sudan's security apparatus. For years, the U.S. provided significant financial aid to Sudan's military, despite its deeply problematic human rights record, especially in Darfur. This aid,
intended to counter terrorism, inadvertently bolstered the very structures from which groups like the RSF (formerly the Janjaweed) emerged and evolved. One might wonder at the timing of media focus on current atrocities while sidestepping the uncomfortable reality that US taxpayers, through various aid programs and security cooperation, were indirectly funding components that became today's RSF.
It’s a convenient amnesia, ensuring that the 'bad guys' remain neatly separated from the 'good intentions' of foreign policy, while the body count continues to rise. How many 'rebels' must turn into 'genocidaires' before the funding pipeline is critically examined?