Kay and I live in a quiet, middle-class neighborhood in East Herkimer. We often go for walks and periodically visit with a young woman.

Her children, a boy around 10 and a girl probably 7 or so, are wonderful and friendly, as is she. Her husband played in our Lions Club golf tournament, and I played slo-pitch with her father. On early morning jaunts, we run into the mom and kids waiting at the bus stop, and some evenings, we watch them heading off to the boy’s soccer game. They’re a typical family enjoying the fruits of living in today’s America.

Oh how Naima would give anything to be here; to enjoy a lifestyle experienced by millions of parents like my neighbors. Instead, her tomorrows, like her yesterdays, find her struggling just to survive. Naima, 48, is a member of a Black ethnic group living in the Darfur region of Sudan and targeted for ethnic cleansing by Arab extremists (Rapid Support Forces) who represent one side of a brutal civil war raging since 2023.

The RSF is armed and supported by the United Arab Emirates. Already one of Africa’s poorest countries (over 60% poverty), the conflict has exacerbated conditions to the point that famine looms and over 10 million people have been displaced.

What happened to Naima, as reported by Nicholas Kristof in his Sept. 29 column in The New York Times, has been the fate of countless others like her.

Recently, a RSF militia surrounded her village, lined up boys and men and shot them one by one. Their crime? They were Black. Then they moved on to kill some more, pillage and rape- which had become a weapon of war. Included in the latter was one of Naima’s daughters. Terrified that her 10-year-old son, Nazir, would be shot, she put him on her back to make him seem smaller.

Sudanese moms carry young children that way. Her ploy failed. Two gunmen tried to grab the boy while Naima begged for his life. Her pleas were met with a rifle butt to the head and bullets to her breast and leg. Fortunately, both were flesh wounds. As she bled, she fought back, not surrendering her son. Unbelievably, the attackers let her go. Naima and her children escaped to another village.

But it was no safe haven. The RSF attacked again. This time they grabbed her 14 year-old niece to rape her. Naima blocked them, telling them to rape her instead. She fought back. One of the men clubbed her with his gun and then took aim. But his cohort for some reason stopped him. Naima and her niece had been spared. Sadly, by the time she made it to a refugee camp across the border in Chad, she had lost her mother. Her father and brother were missing, most probably dead. Their crime? They were Black.

To date, Nazir is a classic case of PTSD, suffering often from nightmares. And he probably always will. Naima has recovered from her wounds, but like so many others is impoverished. Despite it all, she still cares for orphans in the camp. As she told Kristof, helping those in danger is a priority for her. Next to the word heroine in my dictionary is her face. As Kristof writes, “while Sudan reveals man’s capacity for evil, Naida reminds us, on the other hand, of the human capacity for strength, resilience and courage. In the midst of a land suffering from famine, massacre and rape, Naima and others like her remain moral exemplars for us all.”

For the past year, while the media has focused its attention on the “genocide” happening in Gaza, it has largely forgotten the true genocide occurring in Sudan. And so, for the most part, has the Biden administration. It has the leverage to persuade the UAE to discontinue weaponizing the RFL and to pressure both Arab parties to come to a cease fire. If It can send 2000 pound bombs and arms to Israel, it can figure out how to get food, water and medical supplies to the Black ethnic groups. If it wanted to.

Last night during our walk, Kay and I came across those neighbors mentioned at the outset. We could hear the kids’ happy voices a block away. I couldn’t help but wonder what Nazir was doing. If he was still alive. I walked home thinking that fate was indeed a cruel mistress.

Ray Lenarcic is a 1965 State University of New York at Fredonia graduate and is a resident of Herkimer.