{"id":16382,"date":"2025-05-13T00:44:23","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T07:44:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=16382"},"modified":"2025-05-16T03:16:02","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T10:16:02","slug":"the-crisis-of-american-leadership-reaches-an-empty-desert-the-atlantic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=16382","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;THE CRISIS OF AMERICAN LEADERSHIP REACHES AN EMPTY DESERT&#8221;, The Atlantic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>More people have been displaced by violence in Sudan than in Ukraine and Gaza combined.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Photographs from the humanitarian disaster in Sudan and Chad By&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/author\/lynsey-addario\/\">Lynsey Addario<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Introduction by Anne Applebaum<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MAY 12, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.theatlantic.com\/thumbor\/mpEdzZ6y12stMvCKsOVE3JwKOS8=\/54x30:1945x1094\/1440x810\/media\/img\/2025\/05\/09\/Sudan1\/original.png\" alt=\"Picture of refugees who fled the Zamzam camp in Sudan\u2019s Darfur region\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Refugees who fled the Zamzam camp in Sudan\u2019s Darfur region sit on top of a truck shortly after arriving in Tin\u00e9, a border town in eastern Chad. They await relocation to a transit camp nearby. (May 1, 2025)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In Tin\u00e9, a barren desert town in eastern Chad, the first humanitarian crisis of the post-American world is now unfolding. Thousands of people fleeing the civil war in Sudan\u2019s Darfur region have recently arrived there after enduring long journeys in relentless, 100-degree heat. Many have nothing\u2014they report being beaten, robbed, or raped along the way\u2014and almost nothing awaits them in Tin\u00e9. Due in part to the Trump administration\u2019s devastating cuts to foreign aid, only a skeleton staff of international humanitarian workers are on hand to receive them. There are shortages of food, water, medicine, and shelter in Tin\u00e9, and few resources to move people anywhere else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Several months ago, I was reporting in Sudan with the photographer Lynsey Addario. She recently returned to the region and spent several days photographing and speaking with some of the people who are streaming into Tin\u00e9. According to aid workers on the ground, more than 30,000 people have arrived there since regional fighting intensified in mid-April, and more than 3,500 are now arriving every day. The photos below capture the desperation of people with nowhere to go, the absence of infrastructure to help them, the desolation of the empty desert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most of the people in Tin\u00e9 and nearby towns are coming from Zamzam, a famine-stricken camp for displaced people in North Darfur. Aid trucks carrying food have long had difficulty reaching Zamzam, thanks to ongoing violence, bad roads, and the Sudanese government\u2019s reluctance to let international organizations operate in areas controlled by its rivals. Over the past few weeks, the Rapid Support Forces, the militia that is the Sudanese army\u2019s main antagonist, raised the stakes further. The RSF tightened its siege of El-Fasher, the largest city in North Darfur, and began shelling Zamzam itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The core of the RSF consists of Arabic-speaking nomads, once known as the Janjaweed, who have long been in conflict with the non-Arab farmers in this part of Sudan. Their lethal rivalry is not a religious dispute\u2014both sides are overwhelmingly Muslim\u2014and the ethnic differences are blurry. Nevertheless, refugees in Tin\u00e9 say RSF soldiers are interrogating people escaping from Zamzam and El-Fasher, and murdering men who look \u201cAfrican\u201d instead of \u201cArab,\u201d who speak the wrong language or who come from the wrong tribe. \u201cIf your language is Arabic, they will let you go,\u201d a woman named Fatima Suleiman recounted. Those who did not speak it, she said, were murdered on the spot. Her dark-skinned son, Ahmed, a student who knows some English, was spared because he speaks Arabic too, though his friends were not as fortunate. He watched them get gunned down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In theory, the Trump administration still supports emergency humanitarian aid. But in practice, the cuts to logistics and personnel, the abrupt changes to payments, and the associated chaos have hampered all of the international humanitarian organizations working in Tin\u00e9 and everywhere else. The Chadian Red Cross lacks transport for the wounded. The World Food Program\u2019s supplies are unreliable because support systems have been cut. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is cutting staff due to budget constraints. Jean-Paul Habamungu Samvura, who represents UNHCR in eastern Chad, said that in his 20-year career, he could not recall refugees ever being offered so little.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOur big donor is the U.S.,\u201d Samvura said. But in February, UNHCR was instructed to alter its services. \u201cThings we are used to seeing as lifesaving activity, like providing shelter, are no longer considered lifesaving activity,\u201d he explained. That leaves his team with an unsolvable problem: \u201cWhere to put people at least to give them a bit of shading.\u201d Some of his staff have been told that their jobs will end as soon as June, but the crisis will not end in June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Local Sudanese groups, part of a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wilsonquarterly.com\/quarterly\/_\/volunteers-open-doors-in-sudan-typically-closed-to-international-aid-groups\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><u>mutual-aid movement<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;called Emergency Response Rooms, are collecting donations from overseas and have begun offering meals to refugees, as they do all over Sudan. But if the number of displaced people continues to grow as the scale of the disaster expands, these volunteers will also need more resources, if only to ensure that everyone in Tin\u00e9 eats a meal every day. Eyewitnesses report people dying of thirst on the way to Tin\u00e9, and malnourished children arriving among the refugees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is a dramatic moment in a devastating war. More people have been displaced by violence in Sudan than in Ukraine and Gaza combined. Statements about Sudan are regularly made at the UN and in other international forums. And yet the people in these photographs seem to have been abandoned in an empty landscape. As the United States withdraws and international institutions decay, their ordeal may be a harbinger of what is to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.theatlantic.com\/thumbor\/FJ59nWLTm5L8wSAf1MMK4YtyyLY=\/0x0:8256x5504\/1600x1067\/media\/img\/posts\/2025\/05\/20250501_CHAD_000639_KBG\/original.jpg\" alt=\"Picture of Sudanese refugees gathering in the sweltering sun near a United Nations truck in the Tin\u00e9 transit camp. \"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Sudanese refugees gather in the sweltering sun near a United Nations truck in the Tin\u00e9 transit camp. They are to be relocated to another overstretched, underserviced camp nearby in eastern Chad. (May 1, 2025)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.theatlantic.com\/thumbor\/hAEnp22yXeiSKYM-y5Aq9gNwLSo=\/0x0:6048x4032\/800x533\/media\/img\/posts\/2025\/05\/20250503_CHAD_008509_KBG\/original.jpg\" alt=\"Picture of a Sudanese refugee in Tin\u00e9 passing a child up to another woman as dozens of new arrivals pile into an open truck.\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A Sudanese refugee in Tin\u00e9 passes a child up to another woman as dozens of new arrivals pile into an open truck. (May 3, 2025)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.theatlantic.com\/thumbor\/6Cce2WxgyKpGT2Ri26_JdDjXW-M=\/0x0:8256x5504\/928x619\/media\/img\/posts\/2025\/05\/20250501_CHAD_001326_KBG\/original.jpg\" alt=\"Picture of community members distributing hot meals in Tin\u00e9 try to fight back Sudanese refugees desperate for food. \"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Community members distributing hot meals in Tin\u00e9 try to fight back Sudanese refugees desperate for food. Most of the newly arrived refugees fled famine conditions at the Zamzam camp in Darfur. Dwindling support from the United States and other international donors has left local groups without resources. (May 1, 2025)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.theatlantic.com\/thumbor\/j9ByJvImfP9ZNbsDzIcuCxIpX1s=\/0x0:7655x5104\/800x533\/media\/img\/posts\/2025\/05\/20250503_CHAD_006452_KBG\/original.jpg\" alt=\"Pictures of Sudanese refugees in Tin\u00e9\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Sudanese refugees in Tin\u00e9 (May 3, 2025)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.theatlantic.com\/thumbor\/i0i39Bhq6pECAAN2GmeLl__RWhI=\/0x0:6048x4032\/1600x1067\/media\/img\/posts\/2025\/05\/20250501_CHAD_003371_KBG\/original.jpg\" alt=\"Picture of Sudanese refugees boarding a truck in Tin\u00e9\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Sudanese refugees board a truck in Tin\u00e9. (May 1, 2025)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.theatlantic.com\/thumbor\/Jd7-pZrGD3mXh13BvJTafZ2rjOY=\/0x0:8256x5504\/928x619\/media\/img\/posts\/2025\/05\/20250504_CHAD_009339_KBG_V2\/original.jpg\" alt=\"Picture of Sudanese children scrambling to grab their bowls from the ground following a food distribution by the Tin\u00e9 Emergency Response Room.\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Sudanese children scramble to grab their bowls from the ground following a food distribution by the Tin\u00e9 Emergency Response Room. The group aims to provide 1,700 meals a day for the thousands of Sudanese refugees arriving in Tin\u00e9. (May 4, 2025)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.theatlantic.com\/thumbor\/NKymojdf9JNiagC2KwLJJomkYAw=\/0x0:8256x5504\/928x619\/media\/img\/posts\/2025\/05\/20250503_CHAD_006215_KBG\/original.jpg\" alt=\"Picture of Sudanese children being passed into the backs of United Nations trucks in Tin\u00e9. (May 3, 2025)\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Sudanese children are passed into the backs of United Nations trucks in Tin\u00e9. (May 3, 2025)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.theatlantic.com\/thumbor\/EQIA1S85eJrqI4lRIMlhpvBh3ys=\/0x0:6048x4032\/928x619\/media\/img\/posts\/2025\/05\/20250503_CHAD_008133_KBG_V2\/original.jpg\" alt=\"Picture of hungry Sudanese refugees running after trucks ferrying hot meals and food donated by the local community in Chad.\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Hungry Sudanese refugees run after trucks ferrying hot meals and food donated by the local community in Chad for the thousands awaiting transfer from the Tin\u00e9 transit camp to Iridimi. Until the recent massive influx of refugees, most Sudanese arriving in Tin\u00e9 would be relocated almost immediately to nearby camps for shelter. Because of U.S. humanitarian-assistance cuts, the United Nations does not have the means to transfer refugees quickly, leaving them for more than a week without shelter or food under the hot sun. (May 3, 2025)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.theatlantic.com\/thumbor\/iR9GIDsmZIvP_c0Bs-tjIN9F6wI=\/0x0:8256x5504\/928x619\/media\/img\/posts\/2025\/05\/20250501_CHAD_002144_KBG\/original.jpg\" alt=\"Picture of a refugee from the Zamzam camp carries her child as she arrives at the Tin\u00e9 crossing into Chad.\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Fatima Oumda Mohammed, carries her two-month-old son,&nbsp;Mohammed Khari Mohammed Bar, moments after arriving at the border in Tin\u00e9. Fatima\u2019s husband was killed in the attack on Zamzam, and she and her son walked for two weeks to the Chad border. (May 1, 2025)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.theatlantic.com\/thumbor\/tuKEZq1Jm23MsnRlfQtfISq14Zo=\/0x0:8256x5504\/800x533\/media\/img\/posts\/2025\/05\/ChadBWEdit009\/original.jpg\" alt=\"Picture of Taiba Adnan Suliman sits beside Hussein, one of her five-month-old twins, as her mother holds Hassan, the other twin, in the therapeutic-feeding center for malnourished patients at the hospital in Iriba, Chad. \"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Taiba Adnan Suliman sits beside Hussein, one of her five-month-old twins, as her mother holds Hassan, the other twin, in the therapeutic-feeding center for malnourished patients at the hospital in Iriba, Chad. Hussein weighs less than 13 pounds and Hassan weighs 13.25 pounds. Suliman and her seven children walked for 20 days from El-Fasher, in Darfur. \u201cWe didn\u2019t eat along the road\u2014only some biscuits the locals gave us along the way,\u201d she said. She has no breast milk to feed her children. (May 1, 2025)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.theatlantic.com\/thumbor\/cdsZcdN-3X-njk6jppODOZ9qHG8=\/0x0:8256x5504\/928x619\/media\/img\/posts\/2025\/05\/20250502_CHAD_003747_KBG\/original.jpg\" alt=\"Picture of Taysir Ibrahim Juma, 30, holding her two-month-old son, Mujahid, as she sits among relatives and other Sudanese refugees. \"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">At the Iridimi camp, in eastern Chad, Taysir Ibrahim Juma, 30, holds her two-month-old son, Mujahid, as she sits among relatives and other Sudanese refugees. She said her husband was shot and killed by the Rapid Support Forces in Zamzam five months ago. (May 2, 2025)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.theatlantic.com\/thumbor\/EMg8fOfpiWAf4eVRtBTgvfwiXu8=\/0x0:8256x5504\/800x533\/media\/img\/posts\/2025\/05\/20250501_CHAD_002169_KBG\/original.jpg\" alt=\"Picture of Om Juma Ahmed resting inside a truck in Tin\u00e9 after a harrowing journey from Zamzam. \"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Om Juma Ahmed rests inside a truck in Tin\u00e9 after a harrowing journey from Zamzam. The trip can take anywhere from several days to a month. Some refugees from northern Darfur are arriving in Chad on overloaded trucks, some on donkey carts, some on foot. (May 1, 2025)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.theatlantic.com\/thumbor\/EWhpYmPHx5SlWvp6JYFoQHBqW6E=\/0x0:6048x4032\/928x619\/media\/img\/posts\/2025\/05\/ChadBWEditAlternates006\/original.jpg\" alt=\"Picture of a makeshift shelter at the Iridimi camp\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A makeshift shelter at the Iridimi camp (May 2, 2025)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.theatlantic.com\/thumbor\/CyXlgTst-fdVYqUymyz33XmY6Vw=\/0x0:9520x6336\/1600x1065\/media\/img\/posts\/2025\/05\/20250504_CHAD_009795_KBG_V3_1\/original.jpg\" alt=\"Picture of most Sudanese refugees arriving in Tin\u00e9 are dehydrated and hungry.\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Most Sudanese refugees arriving in Tin\u00e9 are dehydrated and hungry. Many people fleeing violence in Darfur die of hunger or thirst before reaching the border with Chad; others are robbed, beaten, or killed along the way. (May 4, 2025)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">ABOUT THE AUTHOR<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/author\/lynsey-addario\/\">Lynsey Addario<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/author\/lynsey-addario\/\">Lynsey Addario<\/a>&nbsp;is a photojournalist and the author of&nbsp;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/a\/12476\/9780525560029\">Of Love and War<\/a>&nbsp;<\/em>and the&nbsp;<em>New York Times<\/em>&nbsp;best-selling memoir&nbsp;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/a\/12476\/9780143128410\">It\u2019s What I Do<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More people have been displaced by violence in Sudan than in Ukraine and Gaza combined. Photographs from the humanitarian disaster in Sudan and Chad By&nbsp;Lynsey Addario Introduction by Anne Applebaum MAY 12, 2025 In Tin\u00e9, a barren desert town in eastern Chad, the first humanitarian crisis of the post-American world is now unfolding. Thousands of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16382"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16382"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16397,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16382\/revisions\/16397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}