Sudan: The humanitarian and human rights situation deteriorates rapidly

The Sudanese civilian population suffers the consequences of the violence that began two weeks ago with clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, with tens of thousands of people moving in search of safety and lacking basic goods and services, as well as protection, the UN agencies that operate in the country reported this Friday.

This uprooting includes the thousands of refugees and the previously displaced populationwhich has had to abandon the places where it had settled.

In addition, the humanitarian agencies have suspended many of their operations relief due to violence, exacerbating the basic needs of many communities already dependent on this assistance.

And as thousands flee, thousands more remain trapped in residential areas of the capital where there have been combats, air raids, bombardments and the use of heavy weapons, trying to take advantage of any period of calm to reach relatively safer places.

The UN has received reports that the Rapid Support Forces force people to leave their homes exposing them to looting, extortion, and acute shortage of water, food, electricity, and fuel. They also have no access to medical care or cash due to bank closures and limited communications.

refugees flee

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) explained that tens of thousands of South Sudanese, Ethiopian and Eritrean refugees living in Sudan have fled fighting in the Khartoum area to settle in existing camps further east and south, creating new humanitarian challenges.

Sudan hosts more than a million refugeesparticularly from South Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea, tens of thousands of whom have fled the country, along with thousands of other Sudanese citizens.

UNHCR estimates that so far some 20,000 people have crossed into Chad, 10,000 into South Sudan and an unknown number have reached Egypt, the Central African Republic and Ethiopia.

UNHCR/Aristophane Ngargoune

Ethnic violence in Darfur

As if that were not enough, the hostilities that began in Khartoum have unleashed ethnic violence between communities in the already devastated state of Western Darfur, producing the death of at least 96 people since April 24 in El Geneina, the state capital, reported the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The spokeswoman for that agency, Ravina Shamdasani, specified that the total number of deaths in the conflict has risen to 512, according to official figures, although it is the actual number is almost certainly higher.

“While the fragile ceasefire has led to a decline in fighting in some areas, allowing some to flee their homes in search of safety, human rights abuses of people on the move have been commonplace”, Shamdasani said at a press conference in Geneva.

The UNHCR representative in Sudan, Axel Bischop, noted that the region of Darfur could present the biggest humanitarian challenge.

“We are concerned that intercommunal violence will increase and that we will have situations similar to those of a couple of years ago, in a region that has already experienced severe conflict and displacement,” he said.

He emphasized that Darfur records a series of pressing protection issuesnoting that several sites hosting internally displaced persons have been set on fire, while civilian houses and humanitarian facilities have been damaged during the clashes.

starvation threat

He World Food Program (WFP), for its part, warned of the hunger that it can reach millions of people throughout the region.

In Sudan, threats to the security of humanitarian operations, as well as looting of WFP warehouses and theft of vehicles used to transport aid, deprive the most vulnerable of desperately needed assistancethe agency added.

He explained that almost a third of the country’s population, some 15.8 million people, already needed help before the fighting started. Sudan’s Humanitarian Response Plan for 2023 from the UN has only received 13.5% of the requested funds.

Health, another major risk

Added to the damage caused by violence is the closure of more than 60% of health facilities in Khartoumreferred the World Health Organization (WHO), adding that only 16% of these centers function normally.

Since the beginning of the clashes, the WHO has verified 25 attacks against health buildings, with a balance of eight people dead and 18 wounded.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported that violence has interrupted critical care for some 50,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition.

The UN relocates its staff

To continue its work in Sudan, the UN has relocated hundreds of its workers to that country. He General secretaryAntónio Guterres, explained that a convoy of 1,200 employees of the Organization, as well as NGOs and different missions arrived in Port Sudan from the capitalsupported by the Security Office of the United States, a country to which he was infinitely grateful for the help for the safe transfer of this group in the midst of such a difficult and dangerous situation.

Likewise, António Guterres expressed his gratitude to France for its assistance in the safe transport of more than 400 UN staff and their families outside of Sudan.

The French Navy transported over 350 UN staff to JeddahIn Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday night and Thursday 27 April, more than 70 UN and affiliated personnel flew on a French Air Force plane from El Fasher, Sudan, to the Chadian capital. , N’Djamena.

Guterres also thanked the authorities of Saudi Arabia, Chad, Kenya and Uganda for facilitating the arrival of part of the Organization’s staff and their families.