Amid the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Sudan, the heads of over 50 human rights and humanitarian organizations have sounded the alarm and called for more aid, solidarity and attention to the Sudan Crisis. In an open letter published Wednesday, the leaders of the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) also urged the United Nations Security Council (UN SC) to act. Meanwhile, the UN SC heard briefings on the ongoing atrocities in the country and those responsible for committing them.
“With fighting continuing across the country, brutal sexual violence rising, widespread deliberate and indiscriminate attacks on civilians, and journalists and human rights defenders being silenced, the country is no longer at the precipice of mass atrocities – it has fallen over the edge”, the letter said.
Sudan plunged into conflict in mid-April, sparked by a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The conflict has killed thousands of people, displaced millions, and prompted millions more to seek refuge in neighboring countries in search of food, medicine and shelter.
Since April 15, when open hostilities broke out in Sudan’s capital Khartoum, more than 5.3 million people have been forced to flee their homes, more than a million of them as refugees in neighboring countries. Hundreds of thousands of others may soon be forced to join them.
Many are now living in camps with limited access to humanitarian assistance, few educational opportunities for their children, and almost no psychosocial support to help them cope with their traumatic experiences. The United Nations says at least 5,000 people have been killed and more than 12,000 injured since fighting erupted between the rival generals five months ago. The true figure is likely to be far higher.
Inside Sudan, over 20 million people, 42 percent of Sudan’s population, now face acute food insecurity and 6 million are just a step away from famine. Clinics and doctors have come under fire throughout the country, putting 80 percent of the country’s major hospitals out of service.
“Hate speech, especially language urging the targeting of communities based on the color of their skin, is always alarming. But with an increasingly fractured social fabric, some fighters targeting civilians based on their ethnicity, and accounts from sexual violence survivors in Darfur who heard their rapists tell them that we hope you bear “our” babies – we fear the worst”, the leaders said.
“Twenty years after the horrors of Darfur shocked our conscience, we are failing to meet the moment. Thus far, mediation efforts have not deterred Sudan’s warring parties from continuing to commit egregious abuses. “
In their letter, the NGOs urge a more unified approach that better represents the voices and perspectives of Sudan’s civilians, including women, youth, and representatives from the historically marginalized “periphery.”
“The United Nations humanitarian appeal remains woefully underfunded – at about 25 percent of what is needed – and Sudan’s warring parties continue to undermine efforts to deliver aid safely”, they said.
The rights groups and humanitarian organizations call on donors to step up humanitarian funding, both for local and international organizations “who are providing indispensable assistance in Sudan and neighboring countries.”
“The costs of inaction are mounting. The UN Security Council should move from talk to action and begin negotiations to pass a resolution that challenges the climate of impunity, reiterates that international law requires providing safe, unhindered humanitarian access, and redirects international efforts to better protect Sudan’s most vulnerable. The consequences of not acting are too grave to imagine”, the letter said.
Meanwhile, the UN Security Council was briefed by senior UN officials Wednesday on the situation in Sudan.
“This conflict is leaving a tragic legacy of human rights abuses,” Volker Perthes, the United Nations’ top envoy in Sudan, told a council meeting. “Indiscriminate attacks against civilians committed by the warring parties constitute gross violations of human rights.”
The United Nations’ top envoy in Sudan is stepping down, four months after being told by the Sudanese government to leave. In parting remarks, he criticized Sudan’s military and the rebel Rapid Support Forces.
Of particular concern is escalating ethnically targeted fighting in the Darfur region. The region saw wide-scale ethnic violence and crimes against humanity in the early 2000s, and the UN fears a repeat now.
Perthes said hundreds of ethnic Masalit have been killed in El Geneina and other parts of West Darfur. The UN has also received credible information about the existence of at least 13 mass graves in El Geneina and the surrounding areas. RSF and their allied Arab militias have been attacking civilians in this region.
“The United Nations will never stay neutral when it comes to war and human rights abuses,” the UN special envoy declared, adding: “We are on the side of the Sudanese civilians, women and the vulnerable populations who bear the brunt of the conflict.”
The envoy said there is “little doubt about who is responsible for what” in the conflict.
“Often indiscriminate aerial bombing is conducted by those who have an air force, which is the Sudan Armed Forces,” Perthes said. “Most of the sexual violence, lootings and killings happen in areas controlled by the RSF and are conducted or tolerated by the RSF and their allies.”
Perthes said both sides are arbitrarily arresting, detaining and even torturing and executing civilians.
“We need to impress on the warring parties that they cannot operate with impunity, and there will be accountability for the crimes committed,” he said.
A group of Security Council diplomats issued a statement expressing alarm about the rampant use of sexual violence in the conflict.
"Reports of rape, including gang rape, sexual slavery, abduction, and sexual harassment have been prominent throughout the conflict," it said. “Women and girls, particularly in the Darfur region, are subjected to horrifying acts of sexual [violence] and reports of gender-based violence as a tactic of war to instill fear and control in the population and assert dominance over local communities.”
The diplomats urged the warring parties to stop such violence and uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law.
The United States issued its own call late Wednesday for the warring sides to “end this brutal conflict,” saying the people of Sudan “deserve freedom, peace, and justice.”
“Both parties have instigated unrelenting violence that has caused death and destruction across Sudan,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement. “As we have said before, both parties must comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law, including obligations related to the protection of civilians.”
Efforts to halt the fighting have so far failed, despite regional efforts by the African Union and the east African regional bloc IGAD, as well as the United States, European Union, Saudi Arabia and some of Sudan’s neighbors.
When asked about the situation at a news conference on Wednesday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the best way to solve Africa’s problems is with African solutions.
“Unfortunately, we are witnessing a never-ending series of terrible fighting with dramatic impacts on civilian population, and this is absolutely intolerable,” he said.
“I think that the international community must come together to tell those that are leading the fight in Sudan that they need to stop. Because what they are doing is not only the destruction of their own country but is a serious threat to regional peace and security.”
“If the fighting continues, this potential tragedy comes closer to reality every day,” Edem Wosornu, head of the operations and advocacy at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told council members.
In the meantime, the humanitarian crisis is rapidly worsening: displacement at the rate of a million persons per month, a collapsing health care system and growing hunger.
In a related development Monday, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) launched a plan to assist at least 10 million Sudanese farmers, herders and fishermen across 17 states. The 12-month program aims to address the threat of food insecurity in the country, which has been exacerbated by the five-month-old armed conflict.
The FAO will add to recent seed distribution efforts to enhance food production, with the hope of feeding 13 to 19 million people in coming months.
Abdulhakim Elwaer, FAO regional representative for the Near East and North Africa, said the Emergency Livelihood Response Plan (ELRP) is designed to combat hunger and poverty in Sudan.
"The ELRP aims to mitigate the impact of the recent conflict on vulnerable people, address their immediate needs, and enhance their ability to recover and strengthen their resilience, besides achieving food security at its minimum level for the overall population," Elwaer said. "Agriculture remains a lifeline in Sudan."
Aid agencies say during Sudan's dry season, which runs from November to May, farmers reliant on rainfall face food shortages, while livestock owners are faced with water and pasture shortages, leading to threatened livelihoods.
According to Integrated Food Security Phase (IPC) projections published last month, more than 20.3 million Sudanese are food insecure, with six million suffering from emergency levels of acute hunger.
Humanitarian needs across the Sudan and in neighboring countries continue to rise as the situation deteriorates. The number of people in need of humanitarian aid stands now at 24.7 million people – more than half of Sudan’s population. Among them are 13 million children in urgent need of lifesaving humanitarian support.
Some information for this report provided by VOA.
Further information
Full text: Joint Statement Urging More Aid, Solidarity and Attention to Sudan Crisis, Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, open letter, published September 13, 2023
https://www.globalr2p.org/publications/joint-statement-urging-more-aid-solidarity-and-attention-to-sudan-crisis/
Full text: Sudan’s Worsening Violence, Humanitarian Crisis Could Foreshadow Civil War, Senior Officials Warn Security Council, Calling for Urgent Action to End Conflict, UN Security Council, press release, published September 13, 2023
https://press.un.org/en/2023/sc15409.doc.htm
Full text: Sudan: FAO launches emergency response plan to protect and restore agricultural livelihoods amid conflict, FAO press release, September 11, 2023
https://www.fao.org/newsroom/detail/sudan--fao-launches-emergency-response-plan-to-protect-and-restore-agricultural-livelihoods-amid-conflict/en