Sudan’s conflict is one year old and it has caused fears of repeated atrocities

Introducing Russia into the War on Sudan: The High-Energy Crisis of the First Year of the GMS/SAF Agreement in Sudan

The ambassador spoke about the toll the conflict is taking on women and girls, with rape being used as a weapon of war.

Girls were kidnapped from the street while walking to school in Khartoum. She said they were handcuffed to the back of trucks and sent to war-torn Sudan.

“There’s nothing like the humanitarian presence there was in the early years of the genocide,” he says, and it’s hard to gauge whether the situation today is worse than in 2003.

JOHANNESBURG — One of the world’s most brutal conflicts is marking its first anniversary this week, but with the war in Gaza and other events dominating news, the humanitarian crisis in Sudan is going underreported.

“Given this, there is strategic sense in Ukraine using special operations forces to both disrupt the flow of gold, harm Africa Corps operations, and support the SAF just enough to help prevent an RSF takeover,” he told NPR.

The Wall Street Journal and other media have reported that Ukrainian fighters are using drones and night vision technology to help the Sudanese army.

Enter Ukraine. The activities of illegal armed groups financed by Russia were brought up during a meeting between its president and Sudanese army Gen. Burhan in Ireland in September.

Russia has a presence in Sudan. Washington accuses its mercenaries of being an arm of the RSF in return for gold that was smuggled from Sudan. Some of the money is going to fund the war in Ukraine, say experts.

The war has been made worse by the presence of foreign groups. Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran are all supporting the Sudanese army, while the United Arab Emirates is accused of backing rebel leader Hemedti — something the UAE denies.

Although the war does not seem to have abated, Sudan’s military made important gains in the last month and regained territory in the capital Khartoum after failing to stop hostilities during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

But the erstwhile allies then differed over plans for a new transition and the integration of the RSF rebel group into the regular army. Since April 15, 2023, the Sudanese military, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the RSF of Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, have been engaged in a power struggle over who gets to run the resource-rich nation that sits at the vital crossroads between North Africa, the Sahel, the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea.

Sudan now has the world’s largest displacement crisis, according to humanitarian organizations. The fighting caused more than 8 million people to flee their homes in the past year. The majority of the country is in need of aid, and there is a risk of famine. According to security monitors and aid groups, the conflict has killed at least 15,000 people, a figure that could be much lower than the actual number. Hunger, malnutrition and the collapse of most health services have led to catastrophic conditions.

According to the United Nations, 25 million people are in need of aid, while nearly 18 million people across the country are facing an acute level of hunger. Eddie Rowe, the World Food Programme’s Sudan director, said that there could be an “unprecedented level of starvation” in May.

The death toll could be much higher because the country remains nearly impossible for outsiders to enter. Problems with access, due to ongoing fighting but also heavy bureaucracy around the clearance of aid convoys, are also exacerbating a hunger crisis.

One of the most profound consequences are fears of another genocide in western Sudan’s Darfur region, where African ethnic groups suffered a campaign of ethnic cleansing by Arab militias 20 years ago. The fighting never completely ended but had waned, until violence from the RSF and allied militias rocketed in the region — one year ago this week. Nearly 600,000 people have fled Darfur into neighboring Chad alone since last year.

Washington has imposed sanctions against senior RSF commanders and has been part of diplomatic efforts to end the war. The previous truce negotiations in Jeddah last year failed to make much of a difference.

“The Darfur tragedy has been forgotten,” a human rights advocate for the United Nations (the United Nations) on the Sudan’s hunger crisis

“Twenty years ago, Darfur was the world’s largest hunger crisis and the world rallied to respond,” World Food Programme Executive Director Cindy McCain said last month. “However today, the people of Sudan have been forgotten.”