Observations · No.03 · June 2026
The World's Blind Spot: Africa's Wars
and the Politics of Global Attention
The hierarchy of suffering in global media
Worthy & Unworthy Victims
As wars in Iran, Ukraine and Gaza dominate the world's front pages, Sudan has become the largest humanitarian crisis on earth — 33.7 million people in need — while Africa's wars draw a fraction of the attention their human toll demands. What is to be done: African states and the AU need to work with existing African media outlets, providing financial and technical support, as well as access, paired with a commitment to genuine media freedom at home. This would enable coverage of pressing continental, national, and local issues, offering an African narrative on both African and global affairs.
Two-thirds of the Sudanese population in need of aid
Key Observations
Sudan · By the Numbers
Largest Crisis on Earth
Ahead of Gaza & Yemen ↑
UN agencies rank Sudan the world's largest humanitarian emergency by absolute numbers — 33.7M in need, up 3.3M in a single year.
Displacement
13.6M people uprooted
9.3M displaced inside Sudan; 4.3M have fled to neighbouring countries — the world's largest displacement crisis.
Death Toll
150,000+ killed since 2023
Widespread reports of indiscriminate attacks on civilians as the war spread from Khartoum into Darfur and Kordofan.
Health System Collapse
~40% of health facilities non-functional
Cholera, measles, malaria and dengue spread amid low immunisation coverage.
Hunger
21M face acute food insecurity
More than 20M also require health assistance — most of a population of roughly 50 million.
Origins · April 2023
From Khartoum into Darfur and Kordofan. Source: OCHA, 2026.
The disparity in numbers · Deadliest yet least seen
The war on Tigray caused ten times the deaths in Gaza, nine times those in Sudan and twice those in Ukraine. UCDP recorded 165,025 deaths in Tigray in 2021 — against 92,629 in Ukraine — yet it drew only 0.96% of global coverage. A press that sees ten times the deaths and looks sixty-one times away is not merely uneven — it lays bare how deeply global journalism still values certain lives over others.
Articles per day, by conflict
The deadliest crises draw near-zero sustained coverage. Source: PAAI 2025 · Media and Journalism Research Center
Why the Wars Go Unseen
Four structural drivers
Imposed communication blackouts
A blackout imposed by the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments sealed Tigray off from independent reporting for much of the war, starving the story of evidence.
The logic of newsworthiness
Coverage rewards geopolitical proximity, elite involvement, dramatic visuals and ideological resonance over humanitarian need — shaping which crises become stories.
‘Worthy’ and ‘unworthy’ victims
A long-standing hierarchy in global journalism renders suffering in the Global South structurally invisible — valuing certain lives, and certain deaths, above others.
A receding commitment to Africa
Attention has declined even against earlier eras — Sudan in the early 2000s, Ethiopia in the 1980s — signalling a broader retreat from Africa's wars and atrocities.
What is to be done: African states and the AU need to work with existing African media outlets, providing financial and technical support, as well as access, paired with a commitment to genuine media freedom at home. This would enable coverage of pressing continental, national, and local issues, offering an African narrative on both African and global affairs.
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