October 26, 2023

The current conflict:

• 9,000 people are believed to have died
• 5.6 million displaced

Main facts:

• Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF)

  • General Abdel-Fattah Burha

• Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group

  • General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo

The civil war comes after a coup in 2021 orchestrated by the SAF and RSF to stop voting.

2019 was the Sudanese Revolution, a mass-based political action resulting in a planned transition to a democratic process for the country. However, political infighting and a lack of control over state and para-military services lead to a destabilization of that process.

The conflict has created the "largest internal displacement crisis in the world" according to the UN.

Major cities affected:

• Khartoum
• Darfur
• South Darfur
• Nyala
• Kordofan
• Karari Omdurman

The SAF is shelling South Darfur and Karari Omdurman. The shelling is basically indiscriminate.

RSF has most of Khartoum.

• 70% of hospitals in conflict-affected states are not functional
• WHO has verified 58 attacks on health care to date, with 31 deaths and 38 injuries of health workers and patients.

• Peace talks are being held in Saudi Arabia coordinated by the USA, but they have resulted in nothing substantial.
• Relief funding has dried-up.
• Health sector is on the verge of complete collapse.

The coalition (Forces of Freedom and Change) that was overthrown in the coup included unions and women's organizations.

Much of the collapse was due to countries seeing imperialist opportunities in Sudan and aligning with different factions during and after the Revolution.

These include the USA, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Egypt. All of which have supported (and armed) both sides of the conflict at some point.

Climate: over 15,000 people have died in Africa so far in 2023 due to climate Change-related weather events.

This includes the massive destruction in Libya's flood which killed 4300 alone and displaced 30,000 people.

Lloyd’s of London has warned insurers that the full impact of climate change has yet to translate into claims data despite annual natural catastrophe losses borne by the sector topping $100bn. (FT)

$100bn and over of losses are going to be the new normal. This has lead to re-insurance companies raising rates 200%.

That means that insurance companies think that we have not even started to feel the economic pinch of climate weather events.

The USA's Food and Drug administration recently stated that Phenylephrine is a bogus drug that does nothing to relieve cold symptoms.

That means Sudafed, Mucinex, Nyquil, and Benadryl all do not work. You may quibble about this because you have been tricked into buying and using these "medicines". But, listen to the science, the main ingredient is Phenylephrine and it is metabolized in the gut before it can do anything.

For colds, it seems like you are better off just getting a little drunk and taking some Acetaminophen since alcohol and a pain reliever is the only active ingredient in NyQuil.

But, do not make the mistake in thinking that these do anything to make you get better faster. In fact, it seems most of these products could increase the length of the illness. Drinking especially.

Equally useless: homeopathic products.

Some drug stores in the USA have pulled the over the counter packed nonsense above, but have left the homeopathic products.

The reason? Homeopathic products are so useless that the FDA doesn't even bother testing them and therefore does not issue statements about their ineffectiveness.

But, they are ineffective. How do we know? Because there is not a single study to show that 99.999999% of these elixirs do anything, even the studies done by the companies that sell the stuff.

If it says homeopathic on the box, don't buy it, it is more likely to cause harm than help.

No wonder no one trusts drug companies.

We need better public regulations and a public drug company to restore some balance to the system.