With the media spotlight pointing to the war in Gaza or the conflict in Ukraine, Sudan this week marks almost a year in an open war in oblivion that has destroyed the foundations of the African country and caused a desolation of biblical proportions . The country is unrecognizable. The fighting in Sudan has caused more than 14,700 deaths (41 per day), many of them civilians deliberately killed, and more than 8.6 million internally displaced people, most of them to Chad or South Sudan, a figure that makes in the world’s largest displacement crisis.
But beyond the unleashed hunger (half of the Sudanese boys and girls – 14 million – urgently need food), the hundreds of sexual rapes of women and girls, the killings with the aroma of ethnic cleansing, even with the use of chemical weapons, or of the 19 million children who have left school, another striking figure underlines the feeling of being forgotten: the United Nations humanitarian response plan to attend to the population in a desperate situation, has only received 5.8% of the required funds.
In an attempt to correct this deadly lack of interest, an international donor conference was held in Paris yesterday, sponsored by France, Germany, the European Union and the UN, with the aim of raising $1 billion for Sudan.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, announced yesterday on social networks that Spain will make “a new contribution of 2 million” for the African country.
During the Paris summit, his French counterpart, Stéphane Séjourné, intoned the mea culpa for global oblivion. “It is obvious that a series of crises, and I am thinking of Gaza and Ukraine, have pushed the Sudanese crisis to the background”, he admitted.
Amnesty International’s regional director for Eastern and Southern Africa, Tigere Chagutah, described the situation as unsustainable in Sudanese territory. “For a year the people of Sudan have been neglected and ignored while bearing the brunt of violent confrontations (…). Diplomatic initiatives have so far failed to end human rights violations, protect the civilian population, provide sufficient humanitarian aid, or hold those responsible for war crimes to account for their actions.”
On April 15, 2023, Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, awoke to the sound of intense gunfire and explosions due to clashes between two power-hungry generals: the head of Sudan’s armed forces, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan , and Muhammad Hamdan Dagalo, alias Hemedti, leader of the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (FAR), whose origin is the terrible Janjawid militias, responsible for more than 300,000 deaths in Darfur, in addition to brutal atrocities, investigated by the International Criminal Court.
The two militaries, who joined forces during the 2021 coup to end the democratic transition after dictator Omar al-Baixir fell after months of mass demonstrations, later clashed over the leadership of the armed forces and the incorporation of the 100,000 FAR soldiers into the army.
