Wolfgang Bauer, the German journalist and author, stood before an audience in Cyprus last week to accept the Outstanding Contribution to Peace prize at the Fetisov Journalism Awards, often called the world’s most prestigious honor for international reporting. His voice was measured but urgent as he described the two weeks he and photographer Johanna Maria Fritz spent inside Al-Naw Hospital in Omdurman, Sudan—the last functioning surgical facility in the besieged capital of a country engulfed in what he called “the bloodiest conflict of our time.”
The war in Sudan, now in its third year, has killed an estimated 150,000 people, displaced nearly 10 million, and pushed the nation to the brink of famine. Yet it remains one of the most underreported crises in the world. Bauer’s acceptance speech was not just a reflection on the horrors he witnessed—it was a warning to his industry. “We are increasingly trapped in the algorithm of editorial systems,” he said. “We report less and less on the unexpected, the new, and the complex.”
At Al-Naw Hospital, Bauer and Fritz were among the few foreign journalists in Sudan. The facility, surrounded on three sides by frontlines and subjected to near-daily rocket fire, was the final refuge for tens of thousands of wounded civilians. Inside, the scale of suffering defied description. “I believed, I know death,” Bauer said. “It is a constant companion in my perform—but this death was new to me. So much death in such a small space. And so few people here in Europe who care about this suffering.”
The Forgotten War
The conflict in Sudan began in April 2023 when fighting erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group commanded by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (known as Hemedti). What began as a power struggle between two generals has since devolved into a nationwide catastrophe, with both sides accused of war crimes, including ethnic violence, mass rape, and the deliberate targeting of civilians.
Al-Naw Hospital, where Bauer and Fritz embedded, became a microcosm of the war’s brutality. Doctors performed amputations without anesthesia, children arrived with shrapnel wounds, and families camped in corridors, waiting for news of loved ones who might never emerge from surgery. “No one knows the exact number of victims,” Bauer said. “No one counts the dead, the injured, the raped. No one is paying attention anymore.”
His report, “The Forgotten”, published in Die Zeit, details the hospital’s collapse under the weight of the war. At one point, the facility ran out of blood for transfusions. Surgeons resorted to using saline solution to keep patients alive. Bauer described a scene where a father carried his son’s lifeless body out of the hospital, only to be told by a nurse that there was no space left in the morgue. The man sat on the hospital steps, cradling the child, until someone finally took the body away.
A Crisis of Attention
Bauer’s speech in Cyprus was a rebuke to an industry he believes has abandoned its core mission. “We tend to report on mental health, partnerships, income, how to make money, and Trump-Boy,” he said. “We report less and less on the unexpected, the new, and the complex.” His critique aligns with a growing concern among investigative journalists that commercial pressures—driven by digital metrics and shrinking newsroom budgets—are narrowing the scope of what gets covered.
Lisa Gartner, the deputy editor for investigations at The New York Times, has led high-stakes reporting on conflicts in Africa and the Middle East. In a 2026 interview with MarketScreener UK, she noted that “the most critical stories often require the most resources—time, travel, translation, security—and those are the first to be cut when budgets tighten.” Her team’s work on Sudan, including a 2025 investigation into RSF-linked gold smuggling networks, underscored the challenges of sustaining coverage in regions where access is limited and risks are high.
Bauer’s warning extends beyond Sudan. He pointed to Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, where state structures are collapsing under the weight of coups, jihadist insurgencies, and foreign interference. “The state architecture of an entire region is disintegrating,” he said. “If it is true that the future is being written in Africa, then it will be a remarkably bleak future.”
The Cost of Looking Away
For Bauer, the consequences of neglect are personal. He recounted the stories of patients he met at Al-Naw: Muna Majek, a mother who lost her legs to an airstrike; Hassan al-Tahan, a teacher whose son was killed by a sniper; Seinab Issa, a nurse who worked 36-hour shifts without sleep. “If we do not care about the suffering of others,” he said, “then we should at least care about our own pain. Our neighbors’ nightmare could soon be ours.”
The war in Sudan has already spilled beyond its borders. More than 2 million refugees have fled to neighboring countries, straining resources in Chad, South Sudan, and Ethiopia. The RSF’s expansion into Darfur has reignited ethnic violence reminiscent of the genocide in the early 2000s. Yet international response has been muted. The United States and European Union have imposed sanctions on both warring factions, but analysts say these measures have done little to curb the violence. In a 2026 report, the International Crisis Group warned that “Sudan is on the verge of becoming a failed state, with implications for regional stability that could dwarf the crises in Libya and Yemen.”
Bauer’s final plea was not to policymakers, but to his fellow journalists. “There is so much suffering in this world. It is hard to bear. Many look away. I understand that. But . I am afraid to look away. I am afraid of losing parts of my humanity.”
Back in Omdurman, Al-Naw Hospital continues to operate, though its future is uncertain. The RSF has advanced toward the capital, and aid organizations warn that a full siege could cut off the last remaining supply routes. For now, the hospital’s doctors, nurses, and volunteers work through the night, knowing that each shift could be their last. As Bauer put it: “Tonight will be another night when people die in Al-Naw.”
