Johannesburg — It is often called the forgotten conflict, but the civil war tearing apart Sudan for 19 months is fueling the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. In just over a year and a half, 13 million people have been displaced from their homes. At least one overcrowded camp of displaced civilians is already facing starvation, while other parts of the country are suffering famine-like conditions.
Outbreaks of dengue, malaria, cholera and measles are hitting children hardest, with the collapse of the education system also preventing around 90% of Sudanese children from going to school.
Fighting broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese armed forces and the paramilitary rapid support forces. THE violence followed months of feuding between the two top generals who ruled the country – former allies at the head of the army and the RSF – during negotiations aimed at fully integrating the RSF into the army before the formation of a new transitional government.
The talks failed and the tension quickly escalated into a full-scale war between the well-armed sides. The U.S. government, along with its international partners, attempted to negotiate a peace agreement, but no progress was made. The Biden administration, for its part, sanctioned individuals and companies affiliated with both sides in the war over human rights allegations abuses and war crimes.
Journalists and humanitarian officials have been largely blocked from traveling to the country to report directly on the conflict, but independent researchers say the death toll from the war has been largely ignored. According to a study published this week According to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, around 61,000 people died in the state of Khartoum alone, which is home to the capital of the same name, between April 2023 and June 2024.
The study found that more than 90% of these deaths were not recorded, but the estimated toll is considerably higher than previously thought.
The study estimates that there have actually been more violent deaths in Khartoum state alone than the current number of officially recorded deaths in the entire country.
“Our findings reveal the severe and largely invisible impact of war on the lives of Sudanese people, particularly preventable disease and famine,” said the report’s lead author, Dr. Maysoon Dahab, adding that “the overwhelming level of killings” in the Central Kordofan and West Darfur regions “indicate wars within a war.”
Fear of bloody RSF attack on El Fasher as famine grips internally displaced person camp
The Humanitarian Research Laboratory at the Yale School of Public Health, in another report released this weeksaid RSF fighters were advancing towards the town of El Fasher in Darfur from three directions. The RSF is expected to launch an assault on the city at any moment, which analysts say would lead to thousands more deaths.
If El Fasher falls to the RSF, there are fears the group could attack the nearby Zamzam camp, which houses around 500,000 civilians displaced by the war. Based on satellite images, Yale HRL said the camp, which is still under the control of the Sudanese army, had almost doubled in size in recent days, with new defensive positions visible, indicating preparations for an attack.
The famine was officially declared in Zamzam in early August, with aid workers warning that thousands of children would die in the coming weeks without access to adequate food.
Amnesty International says weapons from UAE and France present in Sudan
The war in Sudan has been complicated by support and the supply of weapons to both sides by outside countries. A new Amnesty International report claims that RSF uses weapons supplied by the United Arab Emirates, allies of the United States, and equipped with military technologies manufactured in France.
Amnesty experts have warned that these weapons could be used by the RSF to commit other alleged war crimes.
A July report The human rights group said there was a constant supply of weapons from the United Arab Emirates, China, Russia, Turkey and Yemen to Sudan, and often to Darfur, in violation of a long-standing agreement. United Nations arms embargo on the region.
The report said Amnesty found evidence of RSF forces’ use of new UAE armored personnel carriers, called Nimr Ajban, equipped with French-made Galix weapon systems, in several regions of Sudan, including Darfur.
International amnesty
Amnesty said it had verified photos shared on social media showing APCs equipped with Galix systems.
The human rights group called on the UN Security Council to extend the arms embargo on Darfur, in force for almost 20 years, to the whole of Sudan.
“The continued military support to the militia (RSF), due to the complexity of the situation in Sudan, and the involvement of several internal and external actors, is a key factor in the continuation of the war,” said the Sudan’s acting charge d’affaires in South Africa, Dr Nawal Ahmed Mukhtar, told a group of journalists this week. “This must stop so that the massacres and crimes against humanity can end. »
A group of experts sent by the UN Security Council arrived in Sudan earlier this week to investigate and document alleged war crimes committed by the RSF.
It is the first trip by such a UN fact-finding mission since the war began last year, despite months of reports suggesting that starvation and rape are both being used as weapons against civilians. Sudanese.
