There are people who have died as a result of the civil war in Sudan 150,000 forced people and more 11 million some estimates have prompted the US government to declare on Tuesday that the genocide was committed by one of the war's main antagonists, an ethnic Arab militia known as the Rapid Support Forces.
The war, which has involved foreign countries and a number of armed groups, will now spill over to Sudan's borders. after 21 In the first officially declared world famine since 2020, months of fighting have killed thousands in a campaign of ethnic cleansing, countless women and girls have been sexually assaulted and millions are starving.
So many people have been uprooted that the United Nations says Sudan is now their home the world's largest displacement crisis – a “living nightmare”, in words Amy Pope, Director General of the UN International Organization for Migration.
Genocide Old and New
The head of the Sudanese army, General Abdulfattah al-Burhan, and the commander of the Rapid Support Forces, Lieutenant General Muhammad Hamdan. they were once allies. They worked together to stage a military coup in 2021. But later they broke up because they couldn't join forces.
In April 2023 they went to battlearmed battles are taking place in the capital Khartoum.
The RSF, also known as the Flexible Support Forces, is a remnant of the Janjaweed, another militia responsible for killing hundreds of thousands of people in western Sudan's Darfur region 20 years ago. These killings led to a genocide charge against Sudan's autocratic ruler, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who was deposed in 2019 at the International Criminal Court.
On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken of the RSF and allied armed forces new acts of genocide Darfur in 2023. The target, officials said, was the Masalit people, a non-Arab ethnic minority in Sudan, whose population and armed forces are largely Arab.
In July 2023, A mass grave appeared holding the bodies of 87 There is also the possibility that most of the people were killed by the RSF, the group defending Masalli rights reports Sexual violence, torture and killings against Masalit people.
The death toll for war varies greatly. Last year – before the latest wave of fighting – Tom Perriello, America's ambassador to Sudan, said the number could be much higher. 150,000. A group of independent experts in January 2024 submitted a report To the UN, only in December 2023 some 10,000-15,000 In El Geneina, West Darfur, people were killed in RSF massacres.
Last July at least 33,000 people were injured to fightAccording to the World Health Organization. This number is likely to have increased.
Mass displacement
more than 11.5 million Sudanese – almost a quarter of the country's population – have been displaced many times including many from their homes 8.7 million According to a UN report released this week, who fled during the current war. Once the fight started, it was over 3.3 million people have crossed Sudan's borders into neighboring countries, including Egypt, Chad and South Sudan.
The report states that more than half of the displaced are children. Many live severe conditionswith little food or water. Some refugees living in the camp in Adre, across the Chad border, sleep in the rain.
Last October, the disaster worsened 135,000 There were people in Al Gezira province in eastern Sudan displaced According to the United Nations, severe violence has increased in the region for 10 days.
“Words cannot describe this kind of thing,” said Mohammed Ahmed, MSF's deputy head of mission in Sudan. “It's really a sense of desperation.”
Most of the people who fled Gezira stayed in Gedaref province, in the south-east of the country, where Mr Ahmed worked. A situation where many children come to his clinic. he said, after looking at them, it stays with him for a long time.
“Weakened, tired,” he said, “many have moved two or three times.”
Hunger and Disease
Around 25.6 mln People – more than half of Sudan's population – face crisis-level hunger conditions in 2024. Integrated Food Safety Phase Classificationor IPC, is an initiative led by the UN and major aid agencies, considered the global authority on hunger.
IPM 14 months after the start of the conflict informed Sudan was experiencing the highest level of food insecurity ever recorded in the country.
Last August hunger It was officially announced in a camp for internally displaced people in the Darfur region known as Zamzam. Doctors Without Borders calculated this in February 2024 13 were children dies per day in that camp alone. It is zamzam is estimated home hundreds of thousands of people.
In Sudan, there are insufficient health resources to care for the millions of people who need treatment for widespread malnutrition, much less those who suffer from one or more diseases. spread of four diseases – malaria, measles, dengue fever and cholera – this face to face country.
The World Health Organization said last November that Sudan's already strained health infrastructure before the war was at risk. collapseTwo-thirds of the main hospitals in the conflict-affected regions have already been closed. The organization documented at least 119 At least since the war began, it has resulted in attacks on health workers and facilities 189 deaths and 140 injuries.
Mr Ahmed said the children were suffering from severe bouts of preventable diseases that predisposed them to malnutrition and said they “need to be healthy, to play”.