MALAIKA MAHLATSI | Evacuations in war-torn Sudan illustrate painful inequalities

Twenty-nine years ago, an unforgettable injustice happened in Africa. On the morning of April 7 1994, the people of Rwanda woke up to the sounds of gunshots and armed militias hoisting machetes on the streets. Soon, the machetes were tearing through the flesh of every Tutsi person and “moderate” Hutus in sight, including women and children. By the end of the massacre, more than half a million people would be dead.

Unlike many other genocides in the world where intervention by the international community is swift and where condemnation is loud, the Rwanda Genocide was met with an audible silence, particularly in the early days when the devastation could have been stopped. Not a single country intervened forcefully to save the helpless Tutsi, Hutu and Twa people who were being viciously massacred. Not a single agency, not even the United Nations, intervened for the people of Rwanda. The world watched them die...