Current Affairs

There is a scenario that between 500,000 and 1 million Sudanese will die of starvation or disease in Sudan. Food prices have increased by up to 83% because farmers have not been able to gather the harvest. The fighting has moved from the centre of Khartoum to the province of Gezira the breadbasket of Sudan and is proving critical in the upcoming ability of Sudanese to feed themselves. Though the UN is yet to declare a food emergency in Sudan and children are beginning to die of malnutrition; Medicines san Frontiers speaking from Zamam, said that a child dies every two hours from a lack of care or medical help. According to CARE International, an aid group, there has been a seventy percent degradation of health facilities in areas that the conflict is raging.

It is a sad situation that the Sudanese face and the war in Ukraine and Gaza has overshadowed the appalling degradation of the living standards of those who have not been able to escape the conflict in Sudan. The conflict has grown into a nationwide war with the refugees escaping the conflict, which could destabilise the whole region. According to El-Fashir, writing in the economist, “arms and mercenaries are pouring over the border from Chad, Libya and the Central African Republic.” There have been reports that fighters from Russia and Ukraine have been fighting in the conflict, and a report in the Guardian newspaper argues that Ukrainian special forces have joined the Sudanese army and are confronting Russian fighters, who have been coming through the border of Chad to fight for the RSF. (Rapid Support Force).

On 15^th April, donors pledged $2.1 billion to fund humanitarian efforts. Mark Dunford, the head of the UN’s World Food Programme in east Africa said that, “When you look at the sheer size and scale, we are desperately concerned where this may be heading.”In February, the SAF (Sudanese Armed Forces), banned agencies from delivering supplies from Chad, and whole areas have been cut off from emergency supplies. Air strikes and shelling has hit hospitals, prisons and schools, the fear of disease is worrying as health authorities have been unable to function.

Health authorities have warned that cholera, dengue fever and malaria are becoming more prevalent as health conditions deteriorate and the access to clean water is becoming difficult. The UN estimates that twenty million people are food insecure and need protection, especially as national cereal production has collapsed by nearly fifty percent.

According to the United Nations, forty five percent of all new refugees have headed to the Chad border, escaping the ethnic cleansing, famine and fighting. The RSF have continued with their ethnic clearance of “Africans” and in North Darfur, el-Fasher the capital of the northern region, hundreds of thousands of civilians have sought shelter from the RSF. Justine Muzik of Solidarites International, a French Humanitarian charity speaking to the Economist said, “We are already to late.” Medicins Frontier said that a child dies of malnutrition or disease every two hours.  

The United Nations have said that Sudan is experiencing a massive displacement and the total number of refugees will keep growing. Mohamed Osman writing for Human Rights Watch interviewed some of the displaced and a 57 year old woman said that “We had to leave everything behind: our older and sick relatives who couldn’t travel……” 

There has been very little international response to the war, which has also failed to put in place civilian protection. Some are hopeful that peace talks in Cairo and another separate process backed by America is taking place in Saudi Arabia, will begin to bring the country back from the brink of a disaster.

Tom Perriello, America’s special envoy believes that “There is a real risk of a 20-25 year setback for the people of Sudan and the wider region.” And according to Human Rights Watch the humanitarian crisis is not likely to abate despite the horrific toll that this crisis is taking. They argue that there has been a failure to undertake International humanitarian law or ensure that civilians have a level of protection that protects them from the warring parties and that rights are upheld.

Violent sexual assault and rape against women by both sides has been reported, especially in Darfur. Mariel Ferragamo and Diana Roy, reported that “there have been reports of ethnically driven mass killings and weaponization of sexual violence against the Masalit people, in West Darfur.” El Fasher, writing in the Economist, writes- that in “Khartoum state alone more than 1000 rapes have taken place, according to doctors and lawyers.”

Aid has been slow in coming, the $2.7 billion is the amount that the UN is looking for in aid, but this figure has been completely swamped by the demands of Gaza and Ukraine, so the likelihood of funding the necessary aid, is slow in arriving. It has proven difficult for aid agencies to gain the coverage it needs to fund their work and reporting of the crisis is slow and difficult to verify or corroborate. Though food is still available, the cost of that food is dear, so a sack of rice can cost more than eight times market price before the war.

The war between the RSF and SAF has ebbed and flowed. The Sudanese army has made some gains in Khartoum, wiping out the success’ of the RSF in the past, but other areas have seen success for the RSF, especially in Darfur where they have been ethnic cleansing of the state. The war is reminiscent of the nineteenth century argues Alex de Waal an expert on famines. But there have been other aspects of the famine that is about to take place, and that is global warming, which has brought severe weather conditions of both flooding and droughts. The underfunding of the UN and the World Food Programme are making it difficult for them to react to the desperateness of the refugees and those living in Sudan.