Day: June 19, 2023

An international donors’ conference for Sudan was set to kick off in Geneva on Monday, one day into a 72-hour ceasefire between the country’s warring generals aimed at allowing for the delivery of desperately needed aid.

The army, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has since April 15 been battling paramilitary forces commanded by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, after the two fell out in a bitter power struggle.

Multiple truces have been agreed and broken in the war, which has claimed the lives of more than 2,000 people and driven another two million from their homes, including at least 528,000 who fled abroad.

The latest ceasefire came into force at 6 am on Sunday, with mediators saying the two sides had agreed to refrain from attacks and allow freedom of movement and the delivery of aid.

“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and United States of America announce the agreement of representatives of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on a ceasefire throughout Sudan for a period of 72 hours,” the Saudi foreign ministry said.

Witnesses in Khartoum said the situation was “calm”.

The United Nations in Geneva, meanwhile, was preparing to convene an international pledging conference for Sudan in conjunction with several state partners, with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres among those scheduled to address the Monday afternoon meeting.

Donors were expected to “announce financial commitments to address the unfolding humanitarian crisis and reiterate the need for the parties to the conflict in Sudan to adhere to their obligations under International Humanitarian Law”, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement.

“To date, this year’s revised Humanitarian Response Plan for Sudan has received less than 16 per cent of the US$2.57 billion required, while the Regional Refugee Response Plan for $470 million is just 17 per cent funded.”

Clashes in Sudan had intensified before both sides pledged to respect the truce on Saturday.

The RSF said it would abide by it, while the army said that despite its “commitment to the ceasefire, we will respond decisively to any violations the rebels commit”.

Saudi Arabia had threatened on Saturday to postpone negotiations on its soil “should the parties fail to respect the 72-hour ceasefire”.

The warring generals have also sent envoys to regional capitals.

In Cairo, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday hosted former rebel leader Malik Agar, who replaced Daglo as Burhan’s deputy.

Multiple diplomatic missions in the capital have come under attack or been looted, most of them having ceased operations since the fighting began.

Tunisia on Sunday protested looting by “armed groups” at the ambassador’s residence in Khartoum.

Since battles began, the death toll across Sudan has topped 2,000, the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project says.

A record 25 million people — more than half the population — now depend on humanitarian aid, the UN says.

Chadian leader General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno visited the border town of Adre to assess the scale of “the influx of refugees and ensure that the borders with Sudan are effectively closed”, his office said.

The International Organization for Migration says at least 149,000 people have fled from Darfur into Chad, among the roughly 2.2 million uprooted by the fighting

Source: Nam News Network

Sudan’s warring generals agreed a new 72-hour ceasefire from Sunday, US and Saudi mediators said, after fighting intensified with deadly air strikes in Khartoum and an exodus of wounded from Darfur over the border into Chad.

Air strikes killed 17 civilians, including five children, in the capital Saturday, a citizens’ group said, as medics in Chad reported hundreds of wounded from Darfur seeking treatment.

Multiple truces have been agreed and broken during the two-month war, including after the United States slapped sanctions on both generals after a previous attempt collapsed at the end of May.

A 24-hour ceasefire from June 10 to June 11 provided Khartoum residents with a brief respite from the air strikes and artillery exchanges that have ravaged whole neighbourhoods of the capital but the fighting resumed within 10 minutes of the ceasefire ending.

“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and United States of America announce the agreement of representatives of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on a ceasefire throughout Sudan for a period of 72 hours,” a Saudi foreign ministry statement said late Saturday.

The ceasefire is due to take effect at 6 am, the mediators said.

“The two sides agreed that during the ceasefire period they would refrain from movements and attacks, the use of warplanes or drones, artillery bombardment, reinforcement of positions, resupply of forces, or refrain from attempting to achieve military gains,” the mediators said.

“They also agreed to allow freedom of movement and the delivery of humanitarian aid throughout Sudan.”

The SAF, commanded by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has since April 15 been battling the paramilitary RSF, headed by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, after the two fell out in a power struggle.

A record 25 million people — more than half Sudan’s population — are in need of aid, the United Nations says.

Witnesses say air strikes have intensified in the capital over the past few days.

On Saturday, warplanes struck several residential districts of Khartoum, killing “17 civilians, including five children”, according to a citizens’ support committee.

Residents had earlier reported air strikes around the city’s southern Yarmouk district — home to a weapons manufacturing and arms depot complex where the RSF claimed “full control” in early June.

In a video published Friday on the army’s Facebook page, deputy army chief Yasser Atta warned civilians to keep away from houses where the RSF are located because the army “will attack them at any time”.

Since battles began, the death toll across the country has topped 2,000, the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project said.

Hundreds of kilometres west of Khartoum, up to 1,100 have been killed in the West Darfur state capital El Geneina alone, according to the US State Department.

Medics in Chad said Saturday they were overwhelmed by the hundreds of wounded fleeing Sudan’s Darfur region, which has become an increasing focus of global concern.

The dead have included West Darfur Governor Khamis Abdullah Abakar, killed after he criticised the paramilitaries in a Wednesday television interview. The RSF denied responsibility.

“We are overwhelmed in the operating theatre. We urgently need more beds and more staff,” said Seybou Diarra, a physician and project coordinator in Adre, Chad, for the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity.

“As violence rages in West Darfur, wounded people are coming in waves” to the hospital in Adre, just over the border about 20 kilometres west of El Geneina, the MSF statement said.

More than 600 patients, most with gunshot wounds, arrived at the facility over a three-day period — more than half of them on Friday, it said.

Claire Nicolet, MSF’s head of emergency programmes, cited “reports of intensifying and large-scale attacks this week”.

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), at least 149,000 people have fled from Darfur into Chad.

They are among the roughly 2.2 million people uprooted nationwide by the fighting, which has forced more than 528,000 to seek refuge in neighbouring countries, IOM said.

On Thursday, the State Department attributed the atrocities in Darfur “primarily” to the RSF and said the violence and alleged rights violations are an “ominous reminder” of the region’s previous genocide.

A years-long war in Darfur began in 2003 with a rebel uprising that prompted then-strongman Omar al-Bashir to unleash the Janjaweed militia, whose actions led to international charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The RSF have their origins in the Janjaweed

Source: Nam News Network

The current crisis in Sudan has worsened an already dire food insecurity situation, with hunger expected to increase substantially across the country as it heads into the typical lean season period from June to September.

To scale up its response, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) urgently requires $95.4 million to reach 15 million people with multiple life-saving interventions including providing farmers with seeds and farming equipment and protecting and restocking pastoralists’ livestock herds.

FAO’s immediate plan is to assist over one million vulnerable farmers and their families (totalling five million people) between now and the end of July with cereal seeds (sorghum, millet) and okra seeds for planting in June to July 2023 in the country’s 14 states. Additionally, from July until the end of the year, FAO aims to target 1.3 million pastoralists with livestock services and inputs to strengthen the food security and nutrition of 6.5 million people.

The Organization’s emergency seed distribution, totalling 9 600 tonnes to the most vulnerable farming households in June and July, will allow vulnerable farmers to plant and produce enough food (up to 3 million tonnes of cereals) in November–December 2023 to cover the cereal requirements of between 13 and 19 million people.

“We are doing everything we can to utilize the relatively calm conditions in rural areas and the current planting season to rapidly increase local food production and availability, save lives and avoid more people sliding into acute food insecurity,” said Adam Yao, FAO Representative a.i in Sudan.

FAO remains operational in the country’s 14 state offices. State authorities and local community leaders, as well as 40 national implementing partners continue to confirm their readiness to resume operations and support FAO emergency seed distribution.

Food security situation remains dire

In 2022, the number of people at crisis or worse levels (Integrated Food Security Phase Classification [IPC] Phase 3+) during the lean season was estimated at 11.7 million. Given the likely ripple effects of displacement, trade disruptions, and surges in food and fuel prices, the number of highly food insecure people in the country during this year’s lean season could be above last year’s figure.

Moreover, according to the latest IPC analysis, in the post-harvest period between October 2022 to February 2023, nearly eight million people were estimated to be acutely food insecure – a figure already 30 percent higher compared with the same period in the previous year.

“The current crisis has hit at a critical time for the millions of people reliant on food and agriculture,” said Rein Paulsen, Director of FAO’s Office of Emergencies and Resilience. “We have a short but crucial window now to support local food production considering direct threats to other forms of life-saving assistance and difficulties in ensuring the rapid and safe passage of humanitarian goods across international borders. Boosting local food production and safeguarding livelihoods will not only reduce the food insecurity and human suffering in the country, but eventually lower the likely expanding humanitarian caseload in the coming months.”

Source: EMM/ UN