The international non-governmental organization (NGO) CARE has called Monday on the international community to pay attention to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Sudan and increase funding. The war in Sudan, which entered its tenth month last week, continues to cause extreme suffering for millions across the country and in neighboring states, with women and children experiencing the conflict’s impacts most acutely.
In a statement, CARE warned that recent fighting in eastern and southern Sudan – including in areas that had been spared the worst of the conflict up until mid-December – has added to the trauma and displacement experienced by so many, and compounded fears for what’s next.
“Loss of life, mass displacement, gender-based violence, hunger, cholera are all on the rise and occurring at an alarming rate. Between 70 and 80 percent of hospitals in conflict-affected areas are no longer functional. This crisis demands more attention, and funding,” said Marie David, CARE Sudan Acting Country Director.
Nine months after the war erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on April 15, 2023 in the capital Khartoum, about 7.7 million people have been forced to flee their homes, taking refuge inside and outside Sudan. 6.2 million of those displaced are within Sudan, while 1.5 million others have fled across borders into neighboring South Sudan, Chad, Ethiopia, Egypt, the Central African Republic and Libya. Children represent about half of all people forced to flee.
CARE said Sudan has become a forgotten crisis with limited media coverage, in relation to its devastating scope, and lack of funding.
24.8 million – nearly one in two people in Sudan – will need humanitarian assistance in 2024, according to the United Nations. Yet, global funding for the crisis remains grossly inadequate, at barely 43 percent of what the 2023 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) called for (as of January 23, 2024).
“We call on all parties to ensure that civilians, especially women and girls, are spared from all forms of violence and allowed to move freely to safety without restrictions, have free access to their basic needs, and safeguard their dignity,” David said.
The scale of the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Sudan is unprecedented. The UN says the country is experiencing a “humanitarian crisis of epic proportions”. Millions of people lack access to protection, food, water, shelter, electricity, education, and health care. Among those in urgent need of lifesaving humanitarian support are more than 14 million children. Nearly 18 million people across Sudan are facing acute hunger.
While violence persists across large parts of Sudan - including in Darfur and Kordofan, last month fighting reached Al Jazirah state, a region south of Khartoum. In the past few weeks alone, more than 600,000 people have been displaced by attacks in the town of Wad Madani and parts of Al Jazirah state, Sudan’s main breadbasket region. Many of them have been displaced for at least the second time, after they fled to Wad Madani to escape the violence in Khartoum and now have to flee again.
According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), at least 13,000 people have been killed since mid-April; another 26,000 have been injured, according to the Sudanese Federal Ministry of Health.
But the real death toll is expected to be much higher. An unpublished UN report says that up to 15,000 people have been killed in ethnic motivated violence in El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur state, between April and June last year. According to media reports, an estimated death toll between 10,000 and 15,000 men, women, and children in El Geneina was attributed to intelligence sources.
A retrospective mortality survey carried out for the region of El Geneina by the humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) indicates that the mortality rate increased twenty-fold from April onwards, reaching 2.25 deaths per 10,000 people per day in June. The majority of deaths took place in El Geneina; with 83 percent of casualties being men.
The conflict in Sudan broke out in April between the national army, led by General Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo of the Rapid Support Forces. The RSF has specifically been accused of mass killings and use of rape as a weapon of war, especially in Darfur. Both parties to the conflict have been accused of war crimes.
Last Thursday, a summit of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) called by Djibouti President and IGAD Chair Ismail Omar Guelleh took place in Uganda. The 42nd extraordinary heads of state summit discussed the ongoing conflict in Sudan. But the Sudanese government had withdrawn from the summit. Sudan suspended its participation in the IGAD summit, accusing the regional body of violating its sovereignty and setting a dangerous precedent by inviting RSF leader Dagalo.
In a communiqué, read by Djibouti’s Foreign Affairs Minister Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, the heads of states, including Presidents William Ruto of Kenya and Salva Kiir of South Sudan, along with representatives of the European Union, African Union and the United Nations, outlined their demands to the warring factions.
IGAD called on Sudan’s warring factions to meet within two weeks face-to-face to de-escalate the situation. According to the communiqué, the conflict must be resolved by the Sudanese without any external interference. The IGAD leaders condemned the ongoing conflict that has caused immense suffering, with people losing hope and the state about to collapse.
The head of states expressed their concern by the continued fighting in Sudan and the dire security and humanitarian situation. They reiterated their call for the parties to the conflict to commit to dialogue and negotiation and their call for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire as well as cessation of hostilities to end the war to pave way for a political dialogue.
Further information
Full text: Sudan: A forgotten crisis the world must pay attention to now, CARE, press release, published January 22, 2024
https://www.care.org/news-and-stories/press-releases/sudan-a-forgotten-crisis-the-world-must-pay-attention-to-now/
Full text: Communiqué of the 42nd Extraordinary Assembly of IGAD Heads of State and Government, Entebbe, Republic of Uganda, Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), published January 18, 2024
https://igad.int/communique-of-the-42nd-extraordinary-assembly-of-igad-heads-of-state-and-government/