July 29, 2025
•
I asked Grok to compare the Gaza and Sudan wars. I thought its answer, which follows, was excellent.
Grok said:
Comparing the violence in Gaza and Sudan requires examining the scale, nature, and impact of the conflicts in each region, based on available data up to July 29, 2025. Both conflicts have caused significant civilian suffering, but they differ in scope, intensity, and global attention. Below is a detailed comparison, focusing on key metrics like casualties, displacement, humanitarian impact, and the nature of the violence.
1. Scale of Casualties
- Gaza:
- Since October 7, 2023, the conflict in Gaza has resulted in high civilian casualties due to intense Israeli military operations following Hamas attacks. According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, at least 23,469 Palestinians were killed and 59,604 injured by January 2024. Oxfam reported that Gaza’s daily death rate exceeds other major 21st-century conflicts, with an average of over 250 deaths per day, higher than Sudan (51.6), Syria (96.5), Iraq (50.8), Ukraine (43.9), Afghanistan (23.8), and Yemen (15.8).
- Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) data indicates Gaza had an average of 14.2 civilian casualties per explosive incident in 2023, dropping to 8.1 in 2024, reflecting the high intensity of violence in densely populated areas.
- The conflict’s high casualty rate is attributed to air-launched explosive weapons in urban environments, leading to significant civilian harm.
- Sudan:
- Sudan’s civil war, which began in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has led to tens of thousands of deaths. Estimates vary, with some sources citing over 150,000 deaths by mid-2025, though earlier reports noted at least 9,000 civilian deaths by November 2023.
- AOAV data for Sudan shows an average of 19 civilian casualties per explosive incident in 2023, rising to 20.1 in 2024, making it the most lethal conflict zone per incident.
- The conflict involves widespread use of heavy artillery, airstrikes, and improvised explosive devices (IEDs), often in urban centers and displacement camps, exacerbating civilian casualties.
Comparison: Gaza has a higher daily death rate, driven by intense, concentrated military operations in a smaller, densely populated area (2 million people, 365 km²). Sudan’s conflict, spread across a larger country (46 million people, 1.9 million km²), has a lower daily death rate but a higher per-incident casualty rate due to the indiscriminate nature of violence in urban and rural settings. Total deaths in Sudan may exceed Gaza’s due to the conflict’s duration and scale, though precise figures are less reliable.
2. Displacement
- Gaza:
- Over 1 million people—more than half of Gaza’s population—have been displaced, many seeking shelter in overcrowded areas like Rafah. Israel’s attacks have displaced the vast majority of Gaza’s 2 million civilians, comparable to or exceeding displacement in other genocidal conflicts.
- Infrastructure damage is severe, with over two-thirds of structures in northern Gaza and a quarter in southern Khan Younis damaged or destroyed.
- Sudan:
- Sudan faces the world’s largest displacement crisis, with over 12 million people displaced, including 8.2 million internally and nearly 3 million as refugees in neighboring countries like Chad, Egypt, and South Sudan.
- The conflict has driven entire communities from Khartoum, Darfur, and Kordofan, with 40,000 newly displaced in the first half of October 2024 alone.
Comparison: Sudan’s displacement crisis is significantly larger in absolute numbers due to its larger population and geographic scope. Gaza’s displacement is proportionally higher, affecting nearly the entire population in a confined area, with fewer options for cross-border refuge.
3. Humanitarian Impact
- Gaza:
- Gaza faces a severe humanitarian crisis, with restrictions on aid exacerbating starvation risks. Only 10% of needed weekly food aid enters, leading to a high risk of famine.
- Health crises are acute, with 40 times higher diarrhoea cases than the previous year due to damaged water and sanitation infrastructure. Eight children died of hypothermia in late 2024, highlighting preventable deaths from lack of basic supplies.
- Attacks on civilian infrastructure, including UNRWA shelters and hospitals like Kamal Adwan, have crippled healthcare and humanitarian operations.
- Sudan:
- Sudan is the largest humanitarian crisis ever recorded, with 24 million people facing acute food insecurity and over 635,000 in famine conditions.
- A cholera outbreak has caused over 60,000 cases and 1,600 deaths between August 2024 and May 2025, worsened by destroyed infrastructure and limited clean water.
- Sexual violence is rampant, with reports of rape and sexual slavery by both SAF and RSF, particularly in Darfur, potentially constituting war crimes or crimes against humanity.
Comparison: Both regions face catastrophic humanitarian conditions, but Sudan’s crisis affects a larger population, with famine and disease impacting millions more. Gaza’s crisis is intensified by its small area and blockade, making aid delivery nearly impossible, while Sudan’s vast size and ongoing fighting hinder aid access to remote areas.
4. Nature of Violence
- Gaza:
- The violence is characterized by high-intensity Israeli airstrikes and ground operations targeting Hamas, often in densely populated urban areas, leading to significant civilian collateral damage.
- Human Rights Watch has accused Israel of collective punishment, including starvation as a method of warfare, amounting to war crimes.
- The conflict is asymmetric, with a state military (Israel) against a non-state actor (Hamas), but the scale of destruction rivals major historical conflicts like Aleppo or World War II’s bombing of Germany.
- Sudan:
- The conflict is a civil war between two military factions (SAF and RSF), with additional involvement of ethnic militias, leading to widespread ethnic cleansing in Darfur.
- Both sides have been accused of war crimes, including indiscriminate attacks on civilians, looting, and sexual violence. The RSF’s actions in Darfur have been labeled as genocide by the U.S.
- Violence includes heavy artillery, airstrikes, and ground battles, often targeting civilian infrastructure and displacement camps.
Comparison: Gaza’s violence is more concentrated and technologically advanced, with airstrikes causing high civilian casualties in a short timeframe. Sudan’s violence is more diffuse, involving a mix of conventional and guerrilla tactics, with ethnic targeting and militia involvement prolonging the conflict and increasing its complexity.
5. Global Attention and Response
- Gaza:
- The conflict receives significant global media and political attention, partly due to its historical and geopolitical significance.
- Dedicated UN agencies like UNRWA focus on Palestinian refugees, and international legal actions, such as ICJ hearings, address Israel’s actions.
- However, misinformation, such as initial reports of an Israeli hospital strike later attributed to Palestinian fire, has skewed perceptions.
- Sudan:
- Sudan’s crisis is often overshadowed by conflicts like Gaza and Ukraine, with limited media coverage and public awareness. Only 5% of Britons and few Americans recognize it as the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.
- International response has been inadequate, with calls for halting arms flows and increasing aid, but mediation efforts have failed.
Comparison: Gaza garners more global focus due to its visibility and historical context, while Sudan’s larger-scale crisis is underreported, contributing to a sense of neglect among Sudanese civilians.
Summary
- Gaza has a higher daily death rate and proportional displacement, with intense, concentrated violence in a small, densely populated area. The humanitarian crisis is severe, exacerbated by aid restrictions and infrastructure destruction, and it receives significant global attention.
- Sudan has a larger absolute scale of displacement and famine, with a higher per-incident casualty rate due to widespread, indiscriminate violence across a vast country. The conflict’s complexity, involving ethnic violence and militias, and its lower global visibility make it less addressed internationally.
- Critical Note: Both conflicts involve allegations of war crimes and severe civilian suffering, but direct comparisons can oversimplify unique contexts. Gaza’s crisis is driven by a blockade and asymmetric warfare, while Sudan’s stems from a protracted civil war with ethnic dimensions. Data limitations, especially in Sudan, and potential biases in reporting (e.g., Gaza’s Ministry of Health figures) require cautious interpretation.
If you’d like a specific aspect explored further, such as casualty breakdowns or humanitarian aid challenges, or if you’d like a chart to visualize the data (e.g., casualties or displacement), let me know!
24 𝕏 posts
20 web pages
•