SUDAN CRISIS.
2 SUDAN GENERALS ARE AT WAR WITH EACH OTHER. HERE'S WHAT TO KNOW.
HUNGER AND MALNUTRITION / HUMANITARIAN BEING DRIVEN BY CLIMATE CRISIS AND CONFLICT.
HUMAN RIGHT IN SUDAN AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL.
An ongoing refugee crisis began in Africa in mid-April 2023 after the outbreak of the 2023 Sudan conflict. By 28 April 2023, more than 50,000 people had fled the country
The crisis began April 15 with clashes between the Sudanese armed forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Tensions have been rising for months over a tenuous power-sharing agreement, backed by international powers, to restart Sudan’s transition to democracy following a military coup in 2021. At the time, the military and RSF had joined forces to oust the country’s transitional civilian leader, who rose to power after the fall of longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019. Now, the RSF is seeking political legitimacy and, similar to the Sudanese military, to maintain control of key economic interests in the country.
The fighting between the two factions, which some experts described as the worst in years, has since intensified, and the situation on the ground remains volatile.
Water and electricity cuts have been reported, and widespread violence has made it impossible for the wounded to reach hospitals, The Washington Post reported. One-third of Sudan’s population of 46 million is acutely food-insecure, according to the World Food Program. Key hospitals in the capital have closed. Some hospitals were hit in the fighting; others lacked power and supplies needed to stay open. Civilians have reported homes being hit by airstrikes or coming under fire, and armed men raiding residences and attacking those inside. Prisons have released inmates because of shelling attacks or because they are unable to provide food.
One resident showed The Washington Post photos of his neighbors, a mother and her two children, obliterated by shrapnel. Another young human rights lawyer was shot alongside seven family members while trying to flee, a heartbroken colleague tweeted.
Khartoum high school teacher Shaheen al-Sharif told The Post that he saw RSF fighters shooting homeless children as he sat at a tea shop. “I’ve never seen someone just shoot kids like this,” he said. “But this is what we expect in the future.
U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, had warned in the conflict’s earlier days that the government would not be organizing evacuations of private citizens.
Besides the United States, more than 15 countries have also organized daring and dangerous evacuations, some by military airplanes, in recent days.
“The way you run Sudan is you pay for a coalition, either in cash or in licensing or in tying them into your kleptocratic network,” said Alex de Waal, executive director of the World Peace Foundation at Tufts University. “If you understand the political marketplace, you understand Sudan.”