Gaza Strip, Palestine —Israel’s intensified bombardment of Gaza has killed key Hamas leaders and displaced thousands more civilians. The war is brutal, and the global attention is immense. But as we zoom in on Gaza, we must also widen our lens to expose a harder truth: Africa has its own Gazas, and the world remains silent.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, over 7 million people are internally displaced amid relentless violence in the east. Armed groups like the M23 continue their advance with impunity. In Sudan, the civil war between rival military factions has turned cities into graveyards and villages into ghost towns. Somalia battles both jihadist insurgency and famine in a never-ending cycle of collapse.
Yet these crises receive a fraction of the outrage, a fraction of the aid, and almost none of the global solidarity.
Why?
Because African suffering has been normalized. Media headlines do not carry the same urgency when the victims are Congolese, Sudanese, or Somali. The death tolls are higher, the wars longer—but the world yawns.
African leaders must stop waiting for validation. The African Union should treat DRC, Sudan, and Somalia as emergencies equal to Gaza. The pan-African media must shine a light where global media refuses to look.
Gaza is a humanitarian catastrophe. But it should also serve as a mirror for Africa—one that reflects our own silenced tragedies.
