NEW DELHI: A year ago, armed fighters forcibly entered Omaima Farouq’s house in Khartoum, Sudan, assaulting her and her children before expelling them. “Since then, our life has been ruined,” said the 45-year-old schoolteacher. “Everything has changed in this year.” Farouq and her four children now reside in a small village near Wad Madani, relying on aid from villagers and philanthropists as international aid groups cannot reach the area.
Sudan has been engulfed in war since April 2023, when tensions between the military and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) escalated into street clashes in Khartoum, quickly spreading across the country. The
conflict has been overshadowed by the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza Strip, which has caused a massive humanitarian crisis and a threat of famine in the territory.
However, relief workers caution that Sudan is heading towards an even larger-scale calamity of starvation, with potential mass death in the coming months due to the breakdown of food production and distribution networks and the inability of aid agencies to reach the worst-affected regions. The conflict has also brought widespread reports of atrocities, including killings, displacement, and rape, particularly in the capital area and the western region of Darfur.
The international community has paid little attention to the crisis in Sudan, with the UN humanitarian campaign receiving only 5% of the required $2.7 billion to provide aid to nearly half of Sudan’s population. The situation on the ground has been deteriorating, with the military and RSF carving up Khartoum and trading indiscriminate fire, while RSF forces have overrun much of Darfur.
The Sudanese Unit for Combating Violence Against Women documented at least 159 cases of rape and gang rape in the past year, mostly in Khartoum and Darfur, with many victims not speaking out due to fear of reprisal or stigma. The situation in Darfur has been particularly horrific, with the RSF and its allies accused of rampant sexual violence and ethnic attacks on African tribes’ areas.
The war has killed at least 14,600 people across Sudan and created the world’s largest displacement crisis, with more than 8 million people driven from their homes. Food production has crashed, imports have stalled, and staple food prices have soared by 45% in less than a year. The war has also wrecked the country’s healthcare system, leaving only 20 to 30% of health facilities functional.
At least 37% of the population is at crisis level or above in hunger, with Save the Children warning that about 230,000 children, pregnant women, and newborn mothers could die of malnutrition in the coming months. About 3.5 million children aged under 5 years have acute malnutrition, including more than 710,000 with severe acute malnutrition.
Aid workers emphasize the need for the world to take action, with Brady from OCHA stating, “Sudan is described as a forgotten crisis. I’m starting to wonder how many people knew about it in the first place to forget about it. There are others that have more attention than Sudan. I don’t like to compare crises. … They both need to be treated.”
(With agency inputs)