The war in Sudan is approaching its 16th month, with tens of thousands of people killed and millions displaced, in what international organizations consider to be the world’s worst displacement crisis.
Fighting broke out between forces loyal to the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April 2023, the two factions vying for control of the country.
Sudan has been in transition since the overthrow of President Omar al-Bashir in 2019 and a subsequent military coup in 2021, as civilian forces tried to establish a government while the two armed parties fought.
Here is a summary of the fighting and its wider effect across the country:
What are the latest fights?
The RSF began attacking towns in the southeastern state of Sennar last month, sending more than 136,000 people to flee since June 24, according to the United Nations.
Civilians fled fighting in the Sennar towns of Sinja and al-Dinder, mainly to the neighboring states of al-Gedaref and Blue Nile, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a report.
There were already around 286,000 displaced people sheltering in Sinja and al-Dinder before the recent clashes began, OCHA said.
“People displaced from Sennar may be experiencing secondary or tertiary displacement,” the report adds.
Meanwhile, fighting continues in el-Fasher, in North Darfur, the last capital that the Sudanese army holds in the Darfur region.
An attack on a market in the city left 15 civilians dead and 29 injured, Health Minister Ibrahim Khater told AFP news agency on Wednesday.
How many people are running away?
Approximately 10 million people have been forcibly displaced in Sudan since the start of the war, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Tuesday.
Around 7.7 million are internally displaced, while more than two million have fled to neighboring countries – including Egypt, Chad, the Central African Republic and Ethiopia.
UNHCR said it was expanding its Sudan refugee response plan for the year to Libya and Uganda, where it expects 149,000 and 55,000 refugees, respectively.
“It just speaks to the desperate situation and the desperate decisions that people are making that end up in a place like Libya, which is extremely difficult for refugees right now,” said Ewan Watson, UNHCR’s head of global communications. reporters.
Libya has taken in more than 20,000 registered refugees from Sudan since the start of the war, the UNHCR said.
Are international agencies helping everyone?
UNHCR has only obtained 19 percent of the funds needed for its refugee response, Watson said, adding that this has forced them to “drastically cut” food rations.
Last week, the UN’s hunger monitoring system, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), said Sudan is facing the worst food crisis in its history.
Some 755,000 people face a “catastrophe” in 10 of 18 states, the most severe level of extreme hunger, according to the IPC.
Meanwhile, 18 percent of the population, or 8.5 million people, face food shortages that can lead to severe malnutrition and potentially death, the IPC added.
“There is a risk of hunger in 14 areas […in Greater Darfur, Greater Kordofan, Al Jazirah states and some hotspots in Khartoum] if the conflict escalates further”, warned the IPC.
“[Conflict escalation] would contribute to current restrictions on humanitarian access to the beleaguered population in critical areas and restrict people’s ability to engage in agricultural activities and casual labor during the upcoming agricultural season.”
What about diplomatic efforts to end the war?
On Saturday, rival factions the Democratic Bloc and Taqaddum participated in reconciliation talks in Cairo, Egypt, but refused to hold joint sessions.
The Democratic Bloc is aligned with the army, while Taqaddum is accused by the latter of sympathizing with the RSF. None of the belligerent parties attended the negotiations.
Several attempts to secure a ceasefire have failed.
Talks in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in May 2023, facilitated by Saudi and U.S. officials, led to a declaration of commitments to safeguard civilians and two short-term ceasefire agreements that have been repeatedly violated .
The UN Security Council approved a resolution in March calling for a ceasefire during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The RSF did not respond to SAF chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan’s condition that the paramilitary group withdraw from the provinces it had taken control of.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
