Reflecting on her visit to a refugee camp on the Sudanese border, an American diplomat wrote recently in the New York Times: “All I heard: an eerie silence... I had tried to prepare myself for the wails of children who were sick and emaciated, but these patients were too weak even to cry.” Famine stalks Sudan, a weapon in this brutal “forgotten war” of indiscriminate bombing of civilians, ethnic fighting and widespread rape and looting.
One UN-verified video shows Sudanese soldiers parading through a major city, brandishing the decapitated heads of students killed for their ethnicity. The UN says that as many as 15,000 people may have been killed in one West Darfur city last year in ethnic violence perpetrated by one faction, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
For a year now, fighting that has taken 13,000 lives, according to UN estimates, has raged between the Sudanese military, headed by Gen Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and the RSF, commanded by Gen Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo. In 2021 the uneasy allies had led a military coup toppling an internationally-recognised civilian government that was supposed to steer democratic transition. Now foreign powers, including the UAE, Egypt, and Iran, have weighed in to back one side or the other with sophisticated weapons.
The resulting humanitarian crisis is arguably the world’s worst, with some eight million Sudanese driven from their homes, nearly a quarter of whom have left the country. Experts warn that between May and September up to 10 million people are likely to face catastrophic levels of hunger.
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The United Nations’ humanitarian campaign needs some $2.7 billion this year to get food, healthcare and other supplies to 24 million people – nearly half of Sudan’s population. Some $2 billion was pledged at a conference in Paris this week held on the first anniversary of the war. It is essential that it is delivered. Aid is vital, but not enough. The UN Security Council must intervene proactively, bringing pressure and sanctions to bear not only on the warring factions but on those states supplying them.
