The population of El Fasher, which includes thousands of displaced people, is in ‘dire need of food, medicine and water’
Water, food and fuel supplies for people in the largest city in the Darfur region of Sudan are being choked off as fighting intensifies, according to reports.
El Fasher has been encircled by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group over recent weeks, besieging the population as well as the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and allied militias.
Continue reading...The African country accounted for two-thirds of the additional 13.5m people needing urgent help as displacement drove food insecurity globally
Sudan had the world’s largest number of people facing extreme food shortages in 2023 as conflict and displacement drove food insecurity globally, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
The war between rival generals meant Sudan accounted for two-thirds of the additional 13.5 million people needing urgent help last year, while conflict also plunged Gaza into the world’s most severe food crisis with its entire population facing high levels of food insecurity.
Continue reading...While conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine have captured global attention, the civil war in Sudan has been largely ignored. That can’t be allowed to continue, says the Guardian’s Nesrine Malik
With so much of the world’s attention on the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, one of the worst humanitarian crises of recent times is playing out almost unnoticed. Sudan’s civil war erupted in April 2023 and has led to tens of thousands of civilian deaths and a mass displacement of up to half of the country’s population.
As Nesrine Malik tells Helen Pidd, the battle between the Sudanese Army and rebel militia the Rapid Support Forces is finely balanced, with the effect that neither side has enough strength to win the conflict decisively and so no end is in sight.
Continue reading...Satellite data indicates growing number of airstrikes on settlements, in a war that has already killed thousands
The number of villages in Sudan that have been destroyed or severely damaged by fire has risen sharply in recent weeks, suggesting the country’s conflict is intensifying as it enters its second year.
Satellite data revealed the number of Sudanese settlements set on fire in March increased to 30, the highest monthly total recorded since fighting broke out between the country’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) last April.
Continue reading...Annalena Baerbock, the German foreign minister, says ‘every life counts equally, whether in Ukraine, in Gaza, or in Sudan’
The UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, has warned of a further escalation in violence in Sudan.
“The Sudanese people have been subjected to untold suffering during the conflict which has been marked by indiscriminate attacks in densely populated areas, ethnically-motivated attacks, and a high incidence of conflict-related sexual violence. The recruitment and use of children by parties to the conflict are also deeply concerning,” Türk said in a statement today.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Rights groups denounce negotiations with Rapid Support Forces, accused of ethnic cleansing and war crimes
Foreign Office officials are holding secret talks with the paramilitary group that has been waging a campaign of ethnic cleansing in Sudan for the past year.
News that the British government and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are engaged in clandestine negotiations has prompted warnings that such talks risk legitimising the notorious militia – which continues to commit multiple war crimes – while undermining Britain’s moral credibility in the region.
Continue reading...Some people in Ambelia camp waiting for treatment to wounds resulting from ethnic violence last year
Hundreds of displaced Sudanese people living in a refugee camp across the border in Chad have been unable to access vital medical care for injuries sustained during fierce battles in the Sudanese city of Geneina in the past year.
Some of those in the vast Ambelia camp near the city of Adré have permanent disabilities that could have been avoided had they undergone surgery, according to the refugees themselves and activists who are trying to arrange travel to Port Sudan in eastern Sudan, where they say medical facilities are relatively better than in Chad.
Continue reading...Authorities to launch inquiry into allegations of mismanagement at country’s national oil corporation
Libyan authorities have said they will investigate allegations of wholesale mismanagement in the country’s National Oil Corporation, with officials telling the Guardian rampant smuggling is helping to fuel the civil war in Sudan.
Mohamed al-Menfi, the chair of the presidential council, will launch an inquiry this week, t he scope of which is likely to also cover the widespread practice of fuel smuggling and its key beneficiaries.
Continue reading...Group on outskirts of Geneina share stories from November when RSF and allied militias unleashed wave of sexual violence
Twice a week, a group of women gather together in a nondescript house in Ardamata, on the outskirts of Geneina in Sudan’s West Darfur state, to tell their stories to each other, cry, and drink coffee.
The women, who work or used to work in education, are all survivors of an ethnically targeted campaign of rape and sexual abuse carried out by fighters from Arab militias backed by the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group on 5 November, after the fall of the army garrison in Ardamata.
Continue reading...People in West Darfur’s capital still step over residue from the bodies of some of the 10,000 dead, and thousands have fled
Geneina, the capital of West Darfur state in Sudan, can feel like two cities in one. There are mass graves, abandoned armoured vehicles and homeless children, but also newly opened restaurants, bustling markets and factory-fresh Toyotas, nicknamed Kenjcanjia – meaning stolen in the local dialect – owing to their lack of registration plates.
Since war broke out between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April last year, the city has witnessed two major massacres. Decomposing bodies lay out on the streets for up to 10 days on both occasions, their flesh eaten by dogs and chickens. Residues from the bodies of the dead remain even now, stepped over by people as they go about their daily business.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: With tens of thousands dead, millions displaced and no sign of the war abating, a ‘deafening silence of global indifference’ threatens the country’s future
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Good morning. “There is a certain kind of obscenity about the humanitarian world, which is the competition of suffering,” the UN’s aid chief, Martin Griffiths, said this month. “We must not forget Sudan.”
But with international attention largely focused on Gaza and Ukraine, that is exactly what’s happening. Tens of thousands have been killed in the civil war that broke out last year between the Sudanese army and the RSF militia, and there are now more displaced people – and specifically more displaced children – than in any other country in the world.
Conservatives | Rishi Sunak has been urged to break his silence over a mounting Islamophobia row over Lee Anderson’s claim Islamists had “got control of” Sadiq Khan. After Sunak failed to use the word “Islamophobia” in his statement responding to Anderson’s suspension from the Conservative party, Tory peer Sayeeda Warsi said: “What is it about the prime minister that he can’t even call out anti-Muslim racism and anti-Muslim bigotry?”
Public services | Britain’s stretched public services will buckle under the weight of the spending cuts planned for after the election, economists have warned, as Jeremy Hunt prepares for another round of tax reductions in next week’s budget. The expected spending levels could mean cuts equivalent to those undertaken by David Cameron’s government from 2010 to 2015.
Ukraine | Volodymyr Zelenskiy has given a figure for the number of Ukrainian battlefield casualties in the war with Russia for the first time, acknowledging that 31,000 soldiers have been killed and saying 2024 will be decisive for the outcome of the conflict. That figure is much lower than the US estimate of about 70,000.
Israel-Gaza war | The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is facing a shortfall of $450m from a budget of $880m as it confronts the biggest humanitarian crisis seen in the organisation’s 75-year history. Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the agency, said UNRWA had reached a “breaking point” amid reports that it has been forced to pause aid deliveries to northern Gaza, where there are increasing reports of famine.
Cinema | The owner of the stately home used in the film Saltburn has revealed he has ordered patrols of the grounds to stop trespassers making TikTok videos of themselves dancing to Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s hit Murder on the Dancefloor, notoriously used in the film’s final scene, in front of the house. Charles Stopford Sackville said that the undisclosed fee for filming had “100%” influenced him to agree, but that he found the interest “quite weird”.
Continue reading...SAF join engineering corps in south of city where they have been besieged by RSF forces since April
The Sudan armed forces (SAF) have advanced in Omdurman for the first time since the beginning of the war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April last year.
It is reported that the SAF in the Karari military area, north of Omdurman, have joined their peers in the engineering corps in the south of the city, where they have been besieged by the RSF since April.
Continue reading...Shipments of food and medical supplies from Asia are having to take longer, more expensive routes to avoid seaborne assaults
Attacks by Houthi forces against ships in the Red Sea are holding up shipments of vital aid to Sudan and driving up costs for cash-strapped humanitarian agencies in the east African country, where conflict has put millions at risk of famine.
The attacks mean ships carrying aid from Asia to Port Sudan must now circumnavigate Africa, traverse the Mediterranean and then enter the Red Sea via the Suez Canal from the north, resulting in huge delays and increased costs.
Continue reading...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...Video reportedly from Ukrainian intelligence shows captured Russian saying he is from Wagner group
Ukrainian special forces are reportedly operating in Sudan in support of the country’s army against Russian Wagner mercenaries aligned with the rebel Rapid Support Forces (RSF), according to a video released on Monday.
The Kyiv Post released a short film which it said came from sources within Ukrainian military intelligence, responsible for covert operations, showing a captured Russian prisoner being interrogated alongside two African men.
Continue reading...Human Rights Watch’s annual report highlights politicians’ double standards and ‘transactional diplomacy’ amid escalating crises
Human rights across the world are in a parlous state as leaders shun their obligations to uphold international law, according to the annual report of Human Rights Watch (HRW).
In its 2024 world report, HRW warns grimly of escalating human rights crises around the globe, with wartime atrocities increasing, suppression of human rights defenders on the rise, and universal human rights principles and laws being attacked and undermined by governments.
Continue reading...A historic trial, which will call on 61 witnesses worldwide, is expected to set a precedent for global corporations in foreign jurisdictions
Before the arrival of Lundin Oil in the town of Leer, now part of South Sudan, life there was peaceful, says George Tai Kuony. His childhood was that of a “typical village boy”, driving cattle, helping his family and going to school. But in June 1998, when he was 15, armed forces entered the town and changed his life for ever.
He fled, became separated from his family and hid for seven days before he was able to return. “When we got there, Leer wasn’t the town I had left seven days ago,” says the 40-year-old lawyer and human rights defender. “Everything was burned down, everything was destroyed. I could see the bodies of dead people lying in the street.” As a result of the conflict, he lost his father, and later his mother and one sibling.
Continue reading...Advance comes after three days of intense fighting that forced thousands to flee towards the south
Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have seized Wad Madani, the country’s second city, which had taken in hundreds of thousands of refugees from the capital, Khartoum, early in the eight-month war between the regular army and the paramilitary RSF.
Videos posted by the RSF on Monday showed fighters in pickup trucks driving along streets in the city, the capital of el-Gezira state.
Continue reading...Region had been a place of refuge for those escaping conflict in Khartoum between the army and the Rapid Support Forces
Thousands of people are fleeing their homes in Wad Madani, Sudan’s second city, where the majority of the capital city Khartoum’s displaced people took refuge at the beginning of the conflict between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces last April.
The fighting reached Wad Madani, the capital city of el-Gezira state, home to Africa’s biggest agricultural scheme, in central Sudan on Friday. People have been seen on buses, while some are walking towards the south.
Continue reading...People living in Ombada district in west of Omdurman say soldiers shot at those who tried to stop them
Residents of Omdurman have described widespread looting by soldiers from the Sudanese armed forces in the only part of the city they still control.
People living in Ombada district in the west of Omdurman, which lies across the Nile from the capital, Khartoum, said soldiers had taken everything from cars to spoons, and had shot at those who tried to stop them.
Continue reading...