Millions at risk of famine as conflict rages
Activists seek global intervention to stop fighting and address food scarcity
On a clear night a year ago, a dozen heavily armed fighters broke into Omaima Farouq’s house in an upscale neighbourhood in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. At gunpoint, they whipped and slapped the woman, and terrorised her children. Then they expelled them from the fenced two-storey house.
“Since then, our life has been ruined,” the 45-year-old teacher said. “Everything has changed in this year.”
Farouq, who is a widow, and her four children now live in a small village outside the central city of Wad Madani, 136km southeast of Khartoum. They depend on aid from villagers and philanthropists, since international aid groups cannot reach the village.
Sudan has been torn by war for a year now, ever since simmering tensions between its military and the notorious paramilitary Rapid Support Forces exploded into street clashes in the capital Khartoum in the middle of April last year. The fighting rapidly spread across the country.
The conflict has been overshadowed by the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which since October has caused a massive humanitarian crisis for Palestinians and a threat of famine in the territory.
But relief workers warned Sudan was hurtling towards an even larger-scale calamity of starvation, with potential mass death in coming months. Food production and distribution networks have broken down, and aid agencies are unable to reach the worst-stricken regions.
At the same time, the conflict has brought widespread reports of atrocities including killings, displacement and rape, particularly in the area of the capital and the western region of Darfur.
Justin Brady, head of the United Nations’ humanitarian coordination office for Sudan, warned that potentially tens or even hundreds of thousands could die in coming months from malnutrition-related causes. “This is going to get very ugly very quickly unless we can overcome both the resource challenges and the access challenges,” Brady said.
The world, he said, needed to take fast action to pressure the two sides for a stop in fighting and raise funds for the UN efforts.
But the international community has paid little attention. The UN humanitarian campaign needs some US$2.7 billion this year to get food, healthcare and other supplies to 24 million people in Sudan – nearly half its population of 51 million. So far, funders have given only US$145 million, about 5 per cent according to the humanitarian office, known as OCHA.
“[The] level of international neglect is shocking,” Christos Christou, president of the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres, (MSF) said in a recent statement.
The situation in fighting on the ground has been deteriorating. The military, headed by General Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and the RSF, commanded by General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, have carved up Khartoum and traded indiscriminate fire at each other. RSF forces have overrun much of Darfur, while Burhan has moved the government and his headquarters to Port Sudan.
The Sudanese Unit for Combating Violence Against Women, a government organisation, reported at least 159 cases of rape and gang rape in the past year, almost all in Khartoum and Darfur. The organisation’s head, Sulima Ishaq Sharif, said this figure represented the tip of the iceberg, since many victims would not speak out for fear of reprisal or the stigma connected to rape.
In 2021, Burhan and Dagalo were uneasy allies who led a military coup. They toppled an internationally recognised civilian government that was supposed to steer Sudan’s democratic transition after the 2019 military overthrow of long-time autocrat Omar al-Bashir amid a popular uprising. Burhan and Dagalo subsequently fell out in a struggle for power.
The situation has been horrific in Darfur, where the RSF and its allies are accused of rampant sexual violence and ethnic attacks on African tribes’ areas. The International Criminal Court said it was investigating fresh allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the region, which was the scene of genocidal war in the 2000s.
A series of attacks by the RSF and allied militias on the ethnic African Masalit tribe killed between 10,000 and 15,000 people in Geneina, the capital of West Darfur near the Chad border, according to a report by UN experts to the Security Council earlier this year. It said Darfur was experiencing “its worst violence since 2005”.
With aid groups unable to reach Darfur’s camps for displaced people, eight out of every 10 families in the camps ate only one meal a day, said Adam Rijal, the spokesman for the Coordination for Displaced Persons and Refugees in Darfur.
In Kelma camp in South Darfur province, he said nearly three children died every 12 hours, most because of diseases related to malnutrition. He said the medical centre in the camp received between 14 and 18 cases of malnutrition every day, mostly children and pregnant women.
Not including the Geneina killings, the war has killed at least 14,600 people across Sudan and created the world’s largest displacement crisis, according to the UN. More than 8 million people have been driven from their homes, fleeing either to safer areas inside Sudan or to neighbouring countries.
Many flee repeatedly as the war expands.
This is going to get very ugly very quickly unless we can overcome both the resource … and … access challenges JUSTIN BRADY, HEAD, U.N. HUMANITARIAN COORDINATION OFFICE FOR SUDAN