Humanitarian Trojan Horse? The Politicization of Humanitarian Aid by INGOs in Sudan and the case of Medecins Sans Frontieres

Abstract

The humanitarian response to the conflict in Sudan during the late 20th and early 21st centuries was significantly limited by hostile operating conditions imposed by the Sudanese Government, which sought to impede INGO action in Sudan by limiting humanitarian access, perpetrating targeted violence against aid workers, and eventually by expelling several prominent INGOs from the region. The Government of Sudan sought to impede INGO action in Sudan because it considered the organizations to be acting in opposition to the government. Prominent INGOs operating within Sudan politicized the provision of humanitarian aid by failing to abide by principles of humanitarian neutrality, aligning the provision of humanitarian aid with a Western political agenda. This resulted in organizations associated with the provision of aid being perceived as adversarial to the Government of Sudan. This thesis analyzes the politicization of humanitarian aid by INGOs aligning with the West as it through four key instances during and after the conflicts in Sudan: Operation Lifeline Sudan, the implementation of the Responsibility to Protect doctrine, the debate over genocide in Darfur, and the International Criminal Court issuing an arrest warrant for Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir. INGOs aligning with Western political powers in each of these instances contributed to the Government of Sudan’s perception of INGOs as adversarial. In contrast to this norm, the medical INGO Médecins Sans Frontières (or Doctors Without Borders) upheld principles of humanitarian neutrality as demonstrated through the organization’s actions, reports, and advocacy. Despite MSF’s operations largely seeking to maintain neutrality, the organization failed to be perceived as a neutral humanitarian actor in the eyes of the Sudanese Government and was subjected to the same hostile operational environment as other INGOs. By comparing the actions and advocacy of MSF to the norm established by other INGOs, MSF’s dual functionality in providing material relief and humanitarian témoignage may be seen to provide a practical incentive for the organization to maintain humanitarian neutrality.