Decoder: What has happened to Sudan and why you should care

Decoder: What has happened to Sudan and why you should care

Sudan is surrounded by unstable nations. A humanitarian crisis could result in refugees flooding into countries ill-equipped to handle the crisis. 150 evacuees from Sudan on a relief flight returning to Qatar, 5 May 2023. (AP Photo/Lujain Jo)  This article was...

Conflict in Sudan is causing a humanitarian crisis. Correspondent Jessica Moody decodes what’s going on in Africa’s third largest country with a look at the past, present and future implications of the conflict. Could what’s happening in Sudan expand throughout the region?

Exercise: In an exercise to grow students’ synthesis skills, have them read the article, then come up with their own headline for the text. Their headline should synthesize the most important takeaways from the article. As a follow-up, ask students to consider how this headline has changed as a result of reading the article. How does students’ view of the Sudanese conflict differ from what they would have said yesterday? (Exercise adapted from Ron Ritchhart’s Making Thinking Visible). 

As in Afghanistan, Islamist extremists endanger West Africa

As in Afghanistan, Islamist extremists endanger West Africa

Islamist extremists are threatening fragile nations in West Africa. Will Afghanistan’s fall to the Taliban yield lessons for France in the Sahel? A soldier guards a Western military base in Gao, Mali on 6 June 2021, days after France announced the end of its...

When it comes to world politics, major news outlets often focus on one place at a time, obscuring important events unfolding elsewhere that can cause geopolitical ripples. In this article, News Decoder’s Jessica Moody shines a light on extremist violence plaguing West African nations in the Sahel, the semi-arid region below the Sahara. She draws parallels between French military involvement in the region and the United States’ recent withdrawal from Afghanistan, highlighting the global challenge of preventing extremist groups from proliferating in fragile states.

Exercise: Ask students to search news sites or newspapers for a global story that is not on the front page, then have them share their findings and explain why we should pay attention.

Author: Jessica Moody