[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 120 (Wednesday, July 22, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4238-S4239]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 SUDAN

  Mr. BOOKER. Mr. President, 3 years. For 3 years, the people of Sudan 
have lived through an unimaginable nightmare and hell: 3 years of the 
worst raging war on our planet, 3 years of displacement, 3 years of 
starvation, 3 years of children growing up surrounded by violence 
instead of possibility.
  Perhaps what is most shocking is not only the horror that is 
unfolding in Sudan, it is how little of the world seems to be paying 
attention. Twenty years ago, the horrors of Darfur captured the 
conscience of the international community. The world declared: Never 
again. Yet, today, another generation of Sudanese civilians is being 
terrorized while the world looks away.
  Since April 2023, the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support 
Forces have waged an unimaginably brutal war for power. But it is not 
those fighting for power who have paid the ultimate price; it is 
ordinary people--mothers, fathers, children, families.
  This war has become the world's worst humanitarian crisis, period. 
Entire communities have been cut off from food and medicine and 
lifesaving humanitarian assistance. Large parts of the country are 
experiencing severe food insecurity, with some areas facing outright 
famine and famine-like conditions. Women, children, families, 
journalists, aid workers--civilians of every kind have endured horrific 
violations of human rights and human dignity.
  Consider what this war has done. More than 15 million people have 
been driven from their homes. More than 4 million have fled Sudan 
altogether. More than 30 million people now depend on humanitarian 
assistance simply to survive. Nearly 19 million children--roughly 90 
percent of Sudan's school-age children--have lost access to formal 
education. Think about that. An entire generation is being robbed not 
only of their safety but of their future.
  The United States has determined that the Rapid Support Forces have 
committed war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and 
genocide. The Sudanese Armed Forces have also committed horrific war 
crimes. The Trump administration has maintained that the genocide 
determination against the RSF is correct. Two administrations. Two 
declarations of an ongoing genocide.
  None of this, though, is inevitable. None of this war is inevitable. 
The war is continuing because outside actors continue to arm it, 
continue to finance it, and continue to sustain it. Every weapon that 
enters Sudan prolongs this crisis and the suffering of the Sudanese 
people.
  Yet, despite the staggering scale of this crisis, the Trump 
administration terminated bilateral humanitarian assistance to Sudan. 
And despite the need for sustained American leadership, the Trump 
administration has still not appointed a Special Envoy for Sudan.
  The people of Sudan deserve more than divided attention. They deserve 
more than the American public looking the other way. They deserve 
focused American leadership in this time of crisis.
  Today, the warning lights are flashing all over the city of El Obeid. 
We have seen the crisis already when it comes to El Fasher and the 
horrors that existed there. But now we see the pattern starting again 
in another major community. We know this pattern. First, roads are cut. 
Then humanitarian aid is blocked. Then electricity disappears. Then 
water disappears. Communications are shut down and disappear. Civilians 
are trapped. And then the killing begins.
  Strategically located between Darfur and Khartoum, El Obeid has 
become the RSF's next major target. It is home to nearly 1 million 
people. They are at risk again. Most roads into and out of El Obeid 
have already been cut off. Only one major route remains, and it has 
already come under repeated drone attacks. Those attacks are growing 
more frequent and more destructive. Water systems, powerplants, 
telecommunications infrastructure, health facilities--the very 
infrastructure civilians depend on to survive is under assault.
  We know this story, and we know how it ends. It is a call to the 
conscience of all of humanity and the conscience of this country. The 
only question now is, Will we act before history repeats itself in this 
city of 1 million people?
  The head of the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan warned:

       The patterns we documented in El Fasher--including 
     encirclement, attacks on civilian infrastructure, 
     restrictions on humanitarian access, and widespread abuses 
     against civilians--serve as a stark warning. The 
     international community must heed these lessons and act to 
     prevent further catastrophes.

  The warning has been issued. The question is whether we will listen--
because we know what happened in El Fasher. Families were hunted down 
house by house. Civilians were massacred at an unimaginable rate. Women 
were subjected to horrific sexual abuse. Children were caught between 
the shelling and the starvation. Thousands and thousands were killed. 
People who stayed were killed. People who tried to flee were killed.
  And the tragedy is this: None of it came without a warning. The 
warning signs were there. The intelligence was there. The risk was 
known, but the urgency was not.
  We cannot allow history to repeat itself in El Obeid, nor can we 
allow the violence consuming Sudan to continue simply because it has 
fallen from the world's headlines--fallen or never been in the U.S. 
headlines.
  I traveled to the Chad-Sudan border. As this crisis raged, I went 
there to witness with my own eyes. I met humanitarian workers forced to 
make impossible choices because they simply did not have enough food, 
medicine, or resources for the overwhelming need before them. I met 
mothers carrying children who were obviously malnourished. I met 
families who had watched their loved ones be murdered. I met survivors 
of horrific sexual violence. I met people surviving on grass because 
there was simply nothing left to eat.
  I saw what seemed like an ocean of humanity in desperation. Those 
images

[[Page S4239]]

will stay with me for a lifetime. The conversations are seared into my 
memory, the cries for help--not just from those who were suffering as 
victims but from the aid workers themselves, from Americans 
themselves--for all of us to do more, to pay attention.
  Even when the United States increased humanitarian assistance under 
the last administration during the first 2 years of the war, the need 
still exceeded the resources available. Yet, as the crisis deepened, 
the new Trump administration chose to terminate or allow bilateral 
humanitarian programs in Sudan to expire.
  While the administration's contributions of $200 million to the U.N.-
managed humanitarian fund is important--it is not nothing--but it is 
nowhere near enough to meet the scale of this catastrophe.
  The reality on the ground demands far more from our Nation than 
expressions of concern; it demands action. That is why I call on the 
Trump administration to restore and increase lifesaving humanitarian 
assistance to the people of Sudan. That is why the United States and 
our partners must increase pressure on the outside actors who continue 
to fuel this conflict. That is why I introduced a bipartisan resolution 
calling on the United Nations Security Council to fully enforce the 
existing Darfur arms embargo and expand it to cover all of Sudan and 
hold accountable anyone who breaks that embargo.
  I urge my colleagues in this body to join me in supporting this 
effort; to not turn away from this crisis; to stand, as America has 
stood in past generations, and call out the crisis and answer the call 
of humanity; to lead to end it. It is too long overdue.
  This administration--I demand that Donald Trump appoint a Special 
Envoy to Sudan. It is required by the law of this body for him to do 
so, and the people of Sudan deserve an American diplomat whose full 
attention is dedicated to ending this war, not one whose focus is 
divided upon multiple crises. The biggest humanitarian crisis on the 
planet Earth demands that we have a Special Envoy. If not this, then 
what? If not now, then when?
  If the staggering human suffering is not enough to compel action, 
then the growing threat to regional stability should be. But I hope we 
don't act because instability threatens our interest alone, even though 
it does; I hope we act because humanity demands it.
  History has a way of asking really difficult questions: Where were 
you, what did you know, and what did you do?
  No one will be able to say that we did not know about this crisis, 
that we did not know children are starving by the thousands upon 
thousands, that we did not know civilians are being massacred at rates 
and levels seen nowhere else on the planet Earth.
  The genocide wasn't declared by the United Nations simply or some 
outside Agency, our own government has declared it a genocide. And now 
another city of a million people stands at the edge of a catastrophe. 
The call of humanity now is who will act. Indifference has never saved 
a single life but has condemned millions. Silence has never stopped a 
genocide, but it has allowed them to continue. Sympathy without action 
is impotency and failure.
  The people of Sudan deserve more. They deserve our action. They 
deserve our focus. They deserve our urgency. They deserve a nation of 
people in solidarity to say: This should never exist amongst humanity. 
It should never exist in our world.
  This is not just a call for the full weight of the international 
community, it is a call for who has led the international community 
since World War II. We have been the Nation that has answered the call 
on so many occasions. We have been the Nation united in our conviction 
that such horrors and atrocities should not exist. It has been American 
compassion that has led other nations to move. It has been American 
urgency that has led other nations to move. It has been American 
leadership that has helped to end crises across the world. It has risen 
to meet the AIDS crisis. It has risen to help people in natural 
disasters.
  We are the United States of America. The test of our values is not 
how much we preach them but how much we live them.
  The core of the faith of our Nation is to love thy neighbor, and who 
is your neighbor? The people of Sudan are our neighbors. They are part 
of our human family. There are children and families now calling to 
God, but it is not up to some deity to answer that call, it is up to 
His children to do so.
  Another city is in peril. The horrors that might emerge in these 
coming days will rage again and thousands upon thousands could die or 
we could act. Let's not wait until another massacre to discover our 
conscience. Let our Nation rise to its truth. Let our Nation rise to 
this crisis.
  In this dark time, let our Nation be a light to the world. Let us act 
now.
  May we act now.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________