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For aid workers in Sudan, willing to do their utmost to help the population caught up in the war between two generals vying for power, working has become too dangerous.
Chaos has reigned in this African country since April 15, when clashes between the army and paramilitaries began: the belligerents shoot, bomb or block the roads, the prisoners escape, the gangs prosper and the police only manage to deploy in limited areas. . At least 700 people died and more than 5,000 were injured, according to provisional data. Several hospitals have been bombed or looted, others have been turned into combatant barracks. Witnesses affirm that all the humanitarian material has been “stolen”.
But “we cannot put the lives of our colleagues at risk” to prove it, Karl Schembri of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) told AFP. This NGO has already lost a volunteer, one of the “191 people killed in the clashes in Geneina”, the capital of West Darfur, one of the poorest regions of Sudan. In all, 18 aid workers have died since April 15.
– ‘Worrying’ –
In Darfur, providing humanitarian aid to a population largely facing malnutrition has always been a challenge in this Chadian border region, which was also the scene in the 2000s of a war that left 300,000 dead and 2.5 millions of displaced Aid workers say that now it has become impossible. And in Khartoum it is very difficult, because there are clashes between the army led by General Abdel Fatah al Burhan and the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (FSR) of General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who have shared power since the coup. 2021.
“We are looking for a way to work in this context. We hope to operate with small, international and Sudanese teams, in partnership with civil society organizations, as soon as possible,” Sylvain Perron of Doctors Without Borders told AFP. MSF) in Sudan. A team of surgeons managed to reach Port Sudan, on the east coast and where the fighting has not reached, and MSF demands that they be able to move safely.
“The level of violence in Khartoum and Darfur against civilians and humanitarian workers is worrying,” warns Perron. Already before the conflict, a third of the 45 million Sudanese were on the brink of famine and in need of humanitarian assistance. Now there are many more, in a country where there is a lack of water, electricity and food.
The head of UN Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, who traveled to Port Sudan, demanded “guarantees” from the two generals, to be able to deliver aid on a large scale. But even with guarantees at the highest level, many aid workers question the chains of command between the two sides, especially in Darfur, where fighting involves tribesmen and armed civilians.
– ‘Militias out of control’ –
In Khartoum, every neighborhood, sometimes every street, seems to come under the control of one side or the other as the days go by. In this context, many wounded cannot reach hospitals, of which only 16% are still operational in Khartoum. The UN established that “17,000 tons of food” disappeared during the looting of its stocks, according to Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for Secretary General Antonio Guterres. The World Food Program (WFP) “is still trying to inventory what is left” of the 80,000 tons it stored before the war.
In El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, the UN “was on the front line and several of its facilities were affected,” says Toby Harward, of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. In El Geneina and Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, their stocks were “prey for looters, criminals, bandits and out-of-control militias.”
To attend to the most urgent, you would have to be able to send money or make payments, but banks are closed everywhere. “It’s a big logistical problem,” says Schembri. The beginning of summer marks a peak of malnutrition in Sudan every year, followed by months of malaria epidemics, in a country hard hit by climate change and drought.
