15 April marked the third anniversary of the civil war in Sudan, which has become the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis. So what is happening there now… and what are the prospects for peace?
The cost of the war
It was reported on 15 April that the civil war in Sudan had cost 40 000 lives, while as many as 14 million people, as much as a quarter of the population of the country, had been displaced. Meanwhile, vital civilian infrastructure has been destroyed.
Luca Renda, the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP’s) resident representative in Sudan, was reported to have told Al Jazeera that “we are not just facing a crisis – we are witnessing the systematic erosion of a country’s future”.
A report by the UNDP has noted that even if peace came to the country this year, Sudan will have lost $18.8 billion of its Gross Domestic product by 2043. For a country like Sudan this is not an insignificant figure.
This kind of news increases the feeling that Sudan has been abandoned by the wider world to its terrible fate.
Sudan has been abandoned
This perception was reinforced by a report on 15 April about the wider cost of the civil war there.
It was noted that as many as 59,000 people had been killed according to ACLED, the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data. It has also been suggested by aid groups that the true figure may be much higher.
Meanwhile, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross another 11,000 people are currently said to be missing.
A further 4.5 million are said to have fled the country to places like Egypt, South Sudan, Libya and Chad.
According to the World Food Program, more than 19 million are said to be suffering from acute hunger, while fuel prices in Sudan have gone up by 24% since the conflict in the Middle East escalated at the end of February.
354 community kitchens, which Islamic relief say were providing a vital lifeline have closed over the last six months.
The civil war has had devastating effects on children, with over 4,300 children having been killed or maimed in the war, according to UNICEF, who also state that at least 8 million children are still out of school. Meanwhile UNICEF also stated that about 11% of schools are being used by warring sides or are shelters for displaced people.
Health facilities have also been badly hit with World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reporting that only 63% of Sudan’s health facilities are fully or partially functioning. WHO also stated that 217 verified attacks on health facilities have taken place since the war began.
Civilians caught in crossfire
The terrible human cost of the civil war was reported by France 24 highlighting that people are hungry, displaced and are still being targeted and that civilians are the people who are paying the highest price. Civilians are stuck inside Sudan, with no safe place for them.
Even if someone is in a hospital or at a wedding or a funeral, they can still be a target. The war was said to have been three years of trauma, and people can’t even bury their dead.
Is an end in sight?
There seems to have been very little good news coming out of Sudan for so long now, it was gratifying to at least see it reported on 15 April that the British foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, was said to be going to speak at a major conference that day to urge Sudan’s warring parties to “cease bloodshed”. However, it was also noted that “analysts believe it is unlikely to deliver a significant step towards peace”.
It was further reported that “the talks in Berlin – held on the third anniversary of the start of Sudan’s ruinous war – are expected to help address a catastrophic funding shortfall that is compounding the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Overall, just 16% of the humanitarian funding needed for Sudan.”
It was also noted that Cooper was to unveil a doubling of UK aid to grassroots emergency responders in Sudan, including the Emergency Response Rooms network.
On the same day, 15 April, it was announced that more than £1 billion of aid had been pledged at the Berlin conference, but that peace still seemed to be a distant prospect.
A pointless war that must end soon
The civil war between a rebel faction of the Sudanese army; the Rapid Support Force and the regular Sudanese army has been a disaster for the people of Sudan. The figures quoted above tell their own chilling story of the suffering experienced by civilians in Sudan.
How much longer will this pointless war go on? And for how much longer will the world allow it to happen? When will the United Arab Emirates face up to their responsibility for the war and when will the more powerful countries of the world finally get involved seriously in the search for peace?
The answers to these and other similar questions hold the fate for many millions of Sudanese people. We can only hope the answers are the correct ones.
How you can help the people of Sudan
To help the people of Sudan please click here.
CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO OUR CROWDFUNDER
HELP US BECOME STRONGER SO THAT WE CAN CONTINUE TO DELIVER POWERFUL CITIZEN JOURNALISM!
