Aid workers working with people who have fled Sudan to neighbouring Chad have sounded the alarm over a worsening humanitarian situation in the Darfur region of Sudan, where war has created conditions approaching famine.
Tammam Aloudat, who works for Doctors without Borders (MSF) in South Darfur, returned from a mission in Niyala last week and spoke of the starvation crisis affecting the region. “There have been kids in the therapeutic feeding center, where we receive children with malnutrition who are above one year old, who looked like they are four or five months old,” said Aloudat.
“What I would like to talk about is really pockets of severe malnutrition that is unmanageable on their own, and just to put it in context, a lot of children once they reach a stage of malnutrition they stop eating even if some food is available,” he added.
Aloudat said he hopes the authorities’ announcement this week of the reopening of the Adre border crossing will mean more U.N. aid can reach hard-hit areas, but that many obstacles remain. He said recent rains had led to the collapse of a key bridge in South Darfur, making it near impossible for large amounts of aid to reach the area.
Most recently, fighters from Sudan’s paramilitary group the Rapid Support Forces RSF rampaged through a central village, looting and burning, and killing at least 85 people, including women and children, authorities and residents said Saturday, the latest atrocity in the country’s 18-month devastating conflict.
The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces began attacking Galgani in the central province of Sennar late in July and last week RSF fighters “indiscriminately opened fire on the village’s unarmed residents” after they resisted attempts to abduct and sexually assault women and girls, Sudan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
More than 150 villagers were wounded, the ministry said.
The RSF has been repeatedly accused of massacres, rapes, and other gross violations across the country since the war started in April last year when simmering tensions between the country’s military and the group exploded into open fighting in the capital Khartoum and elsewhere.
Both sides have traded accusations of attacking civilians and obstructing aid since the country’s war started in April 2023.
The nation was plunged into chaos last year when tensions between the military and the RSF turned into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, before spreading across the country.
Meanwhile, diplomats from the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, the African Union, and the United Nations have been trying to restart talks aimed at calming the fighting.
But the country’s military has boycotted the event and the RSF sent a delegation to Geneva but didn’t take part in the meetings.
The power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) erupted into a large-scale conflict in April 2023 and has been driving humanitarian needs in the country ever since. Conservative estimates say the conflict has killed at least 15,500 people, while some estimates are as high as 150,000, and counting.
Before the conflict, Sudan was already experiencing a severe humanitarian crisis. Long-term political instability and economic pressures meant that 15.8 million people were in need of humanitarian aid. The conflict has only exacerbated these conditions, leaving almost 25 million people — more than half of Sudan’s population — in need.
The brutal conflict since April 2023 has forced millions of people to flee their homes, pushing the number of displaced people to around 12 million by June 2024. The vast majority—over 10 million people—remain within Sudan, representing the largest displacement crisis in the world.
Amidst mass displacement and reports of mass killings, humanitarian access has been severely curtailed, making it extremely hard for aid to reach vulnerable communities.
Additional Source: Africa News, Rescue.org
