Category Archives: Conflict and arms

UN warns of ‘epic suffering’ in Sudan and appeals for $4bn in aid

Posted on by

Ten months of armed conflict in the country has displaced nearly 11 million people and left half the population facing hunger

There is “epic suffering” in Sudan says the UN, where fighting between rival military factions since April has created the world’s biggest internal displacement crisis and raised fears of state failure.

On Wednesday, the UN appealed for $4.1bn (£3. 25bn) to meet humanitarian needs, amid warnings by the UN’s World Food Programme that people are starving to death in areas cut off by fighting.

Continue reading...

Hunger crisis threatens Chad as funding for food aid falters

Posted on by

World Food Programme warns it will stop helping to feed 1.4 million people including refugees from Darfur as global demand for assistance increases

The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that food aid for 1.4 million people in Chad faces a “looming halt” because there is no money, even as the country is experiencing an influx of refugees from the fighting in Sudan’s Darfur region.

Funding shortfalls and increasing humanitarian needs mean WFP will have to pause food for millions of displaced people and refugees in Nigeria, Central African Republic and Cameroon from December, the agency said.

Continue reading...

MSF suspends surgery at Khartoum hospital after Sudanese military blocks supplies

Posted on by

Charity says that medication and materials at Bashair teaching hospital have run out and surgical team is being withdrawn

The medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières has suspended life-saving surgery at a hospital in Khartoum after the Sudanese military blocked medical supplies from entering the city.

MSF said it had been refused permission to transport supplies from warehouses in Wad Madani, in Al Jazirah state, to hospitals in the south of the capital since 8 September. The charity said on Thursday that medication and materials at Bashair teaching hospital have now run out and the team could no longer perform trauma surgery or caesarean sections.

Continue reading...

Tigray atrocities continuing almost a year after ceasefire, UN experts warn

Posted on by

Ethiopian government is failing to protect its citizens from ‘grave’ human rights abuses, amid rising violence and hate speech – report

Human rights abuses are still being committed in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region more than 10 months after a ceasefire formally ended the bloody civil war, according to a group of UN experts.

The latest report by the UN’s International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia said the nation’s government was failing to protect its citizens from “grave and ongoing” human rights abuses being committed by militias and Eritrean troops, who fought alongside Ethiopia’s federal military and remain in border areas of Tigray.

Continue reading...

Quarter of schools closed in Burkina Faso as fighting escalates after coup

Posted on by

Nearly 1 million children denied education, along with many more across eight countries in central and west Africa, new report warns

A quarter of schools are now closed in Burkina Faso after a sharp rise in fighting between militants and the government, according to a new report that warns of a looming education crisis in the region.

The number of schools closed in the country rose by almost a third over the past year to 6,149, affecting close to 1 million students.

Continue reading...

Ethiopian troops accused of mass killings of civilians in Amhara region

Posted on by

Exclusive: Witnesses say federal forces have been looting villages and shooting farmers in their hunt for defiant Fano militiamen

Ethiopian soldiers killed more than 70 civilians and looted properties in a town in Amhara, multiple witnesses have claimed.

The killings took place in Majete, a rural town in north-eastern Ethiopia, after two weeks of heavy fighting between federal soldiers and the Fano, an Amhara militia.

Continue reading...

Rape still a weapon of war in Tigray months after peace deal

Posted on by

Medical records from across the region show sexual violence continues to be used ‘to intimidate and terrorise communities’

Eritrean and Ethiopian soldiers continue a widespread and systematic campaign of rape in Tigray despite the peace agreement signed in November last year, a new report reveals.

In the first report to document sexual violence – using hundreds of medical records from the start of the conflict in November 2020 through to June 2023 – healthcare professionals recount cases of gang-rape, sexual slavery and murder, including the killing of children.

Continue reading...

Civilians targeted in war-torn Khartoum as poor and elderly remain trapped

Posted on by

Latest atrocities in Sudan war include the shelling of house of traditional healer, who died with her children and neighbours

People trapped in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, and its twin city of Omdurman say civilians are being deliberately targeted in shelling by the warring parties.

A woman who had been helping wounded soldiers was killed along with her three children and six neighbours when her home was shelled by Sudanese army forces earlier this week.

Continue reading...

‘Dire crisis for children’ in Sudan, aid groups warn as millions more go hungry

Posted on by

Up to 17,000 more children a day lack food, Save the Children say, as global indifference to humanitarian crisis condemned as ‘racist’

The past four months of fighting in Sudan has pushed millions into food insecurity – with an additional 1.5 million children expected to fall into crisis levels of hunger by September – as aid agencies say they are struggling to reach people.

Up to 17,000 children a day have been falling into crisis levels of hunger, Save the Children warned on Tuesday. With 4 million people displaced so far, the charity said more people were facing hunger in Sudan than at any point since records there began in 2012.

Continue reading...

Airstrike in Ethiopia’s Amhara region kills at least 26 people

Posted on by

Residents say attack on town square in Finote Selam targeted ethnic Fano militia but civilians were also hit

An airstrike on a busy town square in Ethiopia’s Amhara region has killed at least 26 people, in the latest instance of violence in Ethiopia’s second-biggest state, where militia have been fighting the army.

The attack occurred in the early hours of Sunday morning in Finote Selam, a town in Amhara’s West Gojjam zone, a local doctor told the Guardian.

Continue reading...

Ethiopia declares a state of emergency in Amhara amid increasing violence

Posted on by

Clashes between the army and a regional militia threaten public security and are causing ‘serious economic and humanitarian damage’, said officials

Ethiopia’s council of ministers has declared a state of emergency in the Amhara region after its leader said he was no longer able to contain a surge in violence between a local ethnic militia and the army.

The office of the prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, announced the emergency on Friday, saying attacks by “armed extremist groups” posed an increasing threat to public security and were causing significant economic damage.

Continue reading...

The RSF are out to finish the genocide in Darfur they began as the Janjaweed. We cannot stand by | Kate Ferguson

Posted on by

Peace between Hemedti’s RSF and Sudan’s army will not end war crimes. As UN security council president, Britain must act

As conflict in Sudan escalates, it is becoming clear that the Rapid Support Forces has returned to Darfur to complete the genocide it began 20 years ago. The RSF is the Janjaweed rebranded, the “devils on horseback” used by the Sudanese government from 2003 to implement widespread and systematic crimes against non-Arab communities across Darfur. The RSF was, and still is, commanded by Gen Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo.

In recent weeks, what we knew was coming has been confirmed. Yale University’s Conflict Observatory, which uses a combination of satellite imagery, Nasa thermal-detection data and open-source analysis, found evidence of the “targeted destruction of at least 26 communities” by the RSF between 15 April and 10 July. Mass graves have been discovered, and satellite imagery shows entire urban neighbourhoods and villages have been burned down.

Continue reading...

Sudan: Attacks on health workers jeopardise remaining hospitals operating in Khartoum

Posted on by

A rise in violence towards staff has led Médecins Sans Frontières to rethink its presence in the Sudanese capital as intense fighting continues

Increased violence against health workers in Khartoum is endangering the few hospitals still open in the Sudanese capital, the medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said after its employees were beaten and whipped by armed men on Thursday.

The MSF team was attacked 700 metres from the Turkish hospital, one of only two operating in southern Khartoum after others were forced to close during almost 100 days of fighting between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Continue reading...

War crimes surge in Burkina Faso, the world’s ‘most neglected crisis’

Posted on by

Villagers increasingly caught up in army crackdown on Islamist militants, with both sides accused of mass killings of civilians

Civilians in Burkina Faso are being punished by the “total war” the government is waging against Islamist militant groups, with both sides accused of war crimes.

The military has been accused of targeting the Fulani ethnic group, while jihadists have sought retribution against villagers they believe support the government.

Continue reading...

Calls for sanctions against Sudan amid genocide warnings in Darfur

Posted on by

British MPs have been warned of ‘systematic ethnic cleansing’ at the hands of paramilitary forces

British MPs have been warned of the possibility of genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan and urged to put pressure on the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group, which has been accused of murder and arson attacks on minority groups in the area.

While the RSF has been fighting the Sudanese army for control of the country in the capital, Khartoum, it has been accused of waging a separate war in Darfur where the Janjaweed militias, from which the RSF was formed, were accused of genocide almost 20 years ago.

Continue reading...

Anguish as rape survivors in Sudan unable to access vital medication

Posted on by

Emergency contraception, HIV-prevention and abortion drugs are locked in a warehouse in Khartoum – leaving women to turn to desperate measures

Rape survivors in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, are struggling to get hold of emergency contraception and abortion medication.

Access to a warehouse where 47,000 medical post-rape kits are stored has been cut off since the conflict began in April. Women are using social media to share information about where to find drugs to prevent pregnancies and infections – or are using herbal remedies.

Continue reading...

Aid agencies raise alarm as solo children cross Chad border to flee Sudan fighting

Posted on by

Unicef says ‘more and more unaccompanied children’ among thousands of refugees streaming across 1,000km-long border

Hundreds of unaccompanied children have crossed the border from Sudan into Chad in recent weeks as fighting separates families and forces minors to make the arduous journey to safety without their parents.

Humanitarian workers say “more and more” children are arriving alone in the neighbouring country, to which more than 100,000 refugees, about 60% of them under-18s, have fled since fighting erupted between rival military factions in mid-April.

Continue reading...

Ukraine and Myanmar make 2022 most violent year in a decade for medical staff

Posted on by

Report demands accountability for war crimes and singles out Russia for ‘mind-boggling’ targeting of hospitals in Ukraine

Russian attacks on medical facilities in Ukraine made 2022 the most violent year in a decade for hospitals and health workers operating in conflict zones, according to a new report by a coalition of humanitarian organisations.

With 750 reported attacks in 2022, Russia set a 10-year record, according to the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition, which includes Human Rights Watch and the Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health.

Continue reading...

Race against time to stop ‘humanitarian disaster’ among Sudan refugees in Chad

Posted on by

Coming rainy season threatens 80,000 living in ‘heartbreaking’ conditions in vulnerable border region after fleeing war at home

Tens of thousands of Sudanese refugees, many of them children, who have crossed the border into Chad risk a “major humanitarian disaster” when the rainy season begins within weeks, a Red Cross official has warned.

About 80,000 people have sought refuge in the country to the west of Sudan as weeks of fighting between two warring generals forces hundreds of thousands from their homes.

Continue reading...

Sudan’s neighbours have little to offer refugees, warns UN

Posted on by

Thousands of Sudanese are crossing borders into countries already severely stressed by drought, conflicts and food insecurity, say UN officials

The UN is in a race against time to get food supplies to Sudanese refugees crossing the border into Chad before the rainy season begins, as neighbouring countries struggle to cope with the numbers of people fleeing the civil war.

More than 110,000 people are now estimated to have crossed into other countries as patchy ceasefires fail to stop deadly clashes between Sudanese army troops and a paramilitary rival that have killed hundreds and forced more than 330,000 from their homes.

Continue reading...