Who could deny the fact that the drama in Gaza was terrible, just like that experienced by Israel since October 7, 2023? The violence, the deaths on both sides, that’s all we’ve been talking about for two years. These two peoples have paid a heavy price and continue to pay the cost of decades of hatred and political failures. In France, the left is unwaveringly committed to the Palestinian cause, as it has been for decades.
She marched, denounced, took a stand, demonstrated loud and clear, making Gaza the beating heart of her moral indignation and her fight “in the name of the French”. But this passion, although it may have been sincere at times, has become an obsession and above all a business asset. A political and emotional monomania which, paradoxically, makes the French left blind to other tragedies in the world. Because while La France insoumise, the Greens and the Socialist Party continue to make the Israeli-Palestinian conflict the center of their international commitment, Sudan is burning. And the left doesn’t care. And when we remind them by questioning them, they accuse the right of using a fallacious argument, that of selective indignation, which would mean that we no longer have the right to choose our battles.
The Sudanese drama, forgotten for a year and a half
Dver the past year and a half, Sudan has been experiencing one of the greatest humanitarian disasters of the century. A civil war pits General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of the regular army, against Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, head of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary militia accused of war crimes and ethnic cleansing in Darfur.
The country is devastated: more than 15,000 dead, 10 million displaced and a famine that threatens millions of people. Entire cities, such as Khartoum or El-Fasher, were destroyed. Mass rapes, executions, indiscriminate bombings, the more than likely use of chemical weapons (the Western red line): all this is happening today, in the heart of Africa, without anyone looking.
Today, public opinion is discovering an ancient conflict whose horror does not date from yesterday
Barely had the first stage of Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan been implemented, the media completely turned away from the subject to embrace the cause of Sudan. We talk about it in the news, we report on the refugee camps, we rediscover that Sudan exists. It’s a lesser evil. Why now? Because Gaza has taken a back seat. Because the media cycle constantly demands new drama to cover.
Because, to use a cynical but true expression, you need a bone to gnaw. Does the left have an opinion on the subject? No none. For more than a year, those who, like me, tried to warn about the Sudanese disaster spoke into a vacuum. Today, public opinion is discovering an ancient conflict, the horror of which is not new. Sudan becomes the “cause of the moment”, for lack of another. But not for the left, which understands nothing and above all sees no electoral interest in mobilizing. Unlike, unfortunately, in Gaza.
The selective indignation of the French left
Why is the French left not interested in Sudan? Because its international indignation is selective, shaped by history, memory and electoral opportunities. Since the Six-Day War, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has become a moral and identity marker for the French left. To be left-wing is to be pro-Palestinian, by reflex, almost by tradition. Gaza is the tragedy that we understand, that we visualize, which refers to a known pattern: the oppressor and the oppressed. Israel is just the big bad guy, even if the attitude of the Israeli government has been far from perfect for two years, to say the least. But Sudan?
There is no Israel in this story, no identifiable “bad guy” to fuel activist discourse. It’s the syndrome of “no Jews, no news” : if there are no Jews, if there are no Israel, the left looks elsewhere. This moral cynicism can also be explained by political calculation. Committing to Sudan brings nothing. There are no votes to be won. The Palestinian cause speaks to a young, urban electorate, from an immigrant background, sensitive to the question of identity and anti-colonialism. Sudan, on the other hand, is far away, it’s African, it’s complex and it’s an internal conflict. There is no political symbol to draw from it, no meeting to fill, no flag to brandish in the processions. Basically, let’s be honest: the French left no longer has an international vision except the Israeli-Palestinian question and for Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the revolution in Latin America.
There is no political symbol to draw from this for Sudan, no meeting to fill, no flag to brandish in the processions
She reacts by reflex, by emotion, by moral posture. Sudan does not return anything to him. No terrorist threat, no migration issues, no geopolitical confrontation with the West. It is an African war between Africans, in a country which has no oil, no influential diaspora, no media coverage. The concept of “kilometric death”, dear to journalists, is applied here with cruelty: the further away a tragedy is, the more indifferent it is. And the more African it is, the more it disappears.
Sudan, an absolute tragedy ignored by consciences
While the French left demonstrates for Gaza and remains silent on Sudan, this country is falling into chaos. The two generals continue to tear each other apart, transforming millions of civilians into hostages. The United Nations is powerless, NGOs overwhelmed, and regional powers divided. Mass crimes are being committed in Darfur amid general indifference. Qatar is trying to act, while waiting for Donald Trump to wake up, who knows, by calling for a ceasefire, by financing humanitarian aid, by increasing diplomatic contacts. Europe remains absent despite the media coverage for several days.
France, which claims to defend human rights, is silent. The United States is observing from a distance but Trump could quickly take control of the matter. The UN passes resolutions without effect. Sudan is becoming a new Rwanda, a nightmare that no one wants to see. And yet, the solution exists. It requires the mobilization of regional mediators – notably Qatar, Saudi Arabia, or the African Union – and, clearly, through an American commitment under the aegis of Donald Trump, who could want, in a broader perspective, to pose as an international peacemaker. But all this requires political will. The French left has made the Israeli-Palestinian conflict its moral mirror.
The bankruptcy of the left: confusing compassion with calculation, humanism with communication
But by always looking in the same direction, she no longer sees anything else. While she marches to Gaza, Sudan dies in silence. And this is undoubtedly the greatest failure of this left: having confused compassion with calculation, morality with activism, humanism with communication. A true humanist commitment means fighting for all victims, without distinction. Not just for those who serve a political cause. Gaza deserves solidarity. Sudan too. But for the French left, there is no room for two indignations at once.
* Sébastien Boussois isactor in political science, researcher Arab world geopolitics international relations, director of the European Geopolitical Institute (IGE), associated with CNAM Paris (Defense Security Team), at the Geostrategic Observatory of Geneva (Switzerland). Media consultant and columnist.
