#Al Jazira and Khartoum

[worldhumanitarianday]

755,000 people face phase five “catastrophic” conditions in 10 states, including in Greater Darfur as well as South and North Kordofan, Blue Nile, Al Jazira and Khartoum.

Famine risk is real for 14 areas of Sudan amid ongoing fighting

According to the latest UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) initiative, over half the population in Sudan – 25.6 million people – face “crisis or worse” conditions between now September 2024, coinciding with the lean season. Learn more about famine and the IPC's five levels of food security in our explainer here.

Even worse, 755,000 people face phase five “catastrophic” conditions in 10 states, including in Greater Darfur as well as South and North Kordofan, Blue Nile, Al Jazira and Khartoum. At the same time, 8.5 million people – 18 per cent of the population – now suffer from phase four “emergency” levels of food insecurity.

Warring generals

In the more than 14 months since rival militaries – the Sudan Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces – unleashed their heavy weapons arsenals on one another amid rising tensions over a transition to civilian rule, the UN has repeatedly called for a ceasefire as the country’s capital, Khartoum, became a battleground and amid fears of atrocities in the Darfurs. Despite multiple calls for a ceasefire to Generals Abdel-Fattah Burhan, head of the Sudanese military, and Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, who heads the Rapid Support Forces, senior UN humanitarians have warned that the situation is only getting worse.

Conflict leaves country reeling

“We have received news of people eating leaves from trees; one mother cooked up dirt just to put something in her children’s stomach,” said Justin Brady, head of the UN emergency relief agency (OCHA) in Sudan, in an interview with UN News. The risk of famine threatens residents, people uprooted by the war and refugees in no less than 14 areas covering Greater Darfur, Greater Kordofan, Al Jazira states and hotspots in Khartoum “if the conflict escalates further, including through increased mobilisation of local militias that further disrupt mobility, humanitarian assistance, market and livelihood activities”, the IPC assessment warned.

[warningsine]

WAD MADANI - Outbreaks of cholera and dengue fever in war-torn Sudan have left more than 100 people dead since August, the health ministry said on Saturday.

A total of 1,049 cases of cholera, 73 of them fatal, were recorded in Khartoum, Al-Jazira state to its south and Gedaref state to the its west, the ministry said.

Khartoum has been one of the main battlegrounds in the fighting between rival generals that has gripped the country since April.

Hundreds of thousands of residents of greater Khartoum have fled to calmer areas of Gedaref and Al-Jazira, overwhelming the supply of clean water.

Nine Sudanese states have recorded cases of mosquito-bourne dengue, with 49 deaths from a total of 3,316 cases, the ministry said.

Gedaref state, which borders Ethiopia, reported 2,152 of the cases and 33 of the deaths.

Even before the fighting broke out in April, Sudan’s healthcare system struggled to contain the disease outbreaks that accompany the country’s rainy season which begins in June.

Now – with hospitals bombed, medicines running low and many doctors fleeing the country – the healthcare system has been pushed to the brink.

The health ministry report said 70 per cent of hospitals in war-torn areas are out of service.

AFP

[good-old-gossip]

Sudan: International community’s ongoing inaction in the face of daily atrocities and massacres must end

Geneva - The international community’s ongoing refusal to address the daily atrocities and massacres that are being documented in Sudan must end. The bloody conflict has resulted in horrifying numbers of human casualties and the greatest internal displacement waves in history, and there will be further disastrous effects if the international community fails to take serious and decisive action to halt the widespread, deliberate, and indiscriminate attacks that civilians in Sudan are subjected to.

This action should include holding accountable the parties involved in the 14-month conflict—which, according to the United Nations, has resulted in about 15,000 deaths and 10 million displaced people.

Most recently, the village of Wad Al-Noura in Al-Jazira State was attacked by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) using light, medium, and heavy weapons, including anti-aircraft guns. The attack has resulted in the deaths of over 120 people, according to multiple reports. A strict siege had been imposed on Wad Al-Noura since Wednesday morning; the RSF then attempted to storm the village in an effort to seize control of it, resulting in the forced evacuation of the village’s residents and the deaths and injuries of hundreds of people.

At the same time as dozens of the attack’s victims were being buried in a mass funeral, a video began circulating on social media showing members of RSF opening heavy fire on the village.

The incident adds to the near-daily string of crimes committed in Sudan, with violent clashes between the RSF and the Sudanese army currently occurring in the southern White Nile region, the western state of North Darfur, and the states of Khartoum and Al-Jazira in the country’s centre.

Since the start of the ongoing conflict in Sudan in April 2023, the warring parties have been found to have committed numerous crimes in the country. These crimes may qualify as war crimes and crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which has limited jurisdiction over conflicts within Sudan.

An effective international mechanism is required to ensure that those responsible for the horrific crimes committed against civilians in Sudan are held accountable, and that the principle of non-impunity is implemented.

All relevant international parties and institutions, including the UN Security Council, should refrain from making statements that simply denounce the violence. They should instead focus on condemning specific actions, in order to remind all parties to the conflict that they are required by international law to cease waging war on civilians without cause, and to permit safe and unimpeded access to humanitarian aid.

While millions of people are facing the possibility of the worst famine in decades, there is a simultaneous steady rise in the number of massacres, killings, and civilians being displaced.

The severe lack of basic foodstuffs and the more than four-fold increase in prices are making the humanitarian situation in most parts of Sudan extremely dangerous, especially at a time when the warring parties are actively working to block the entry of relief supplies into the areas they control.

Out of the 49 million people living in Sudan, approximately 18 million are estimated by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs to be experiencing “high levels of acute food insecurity” and are in danger of starvation, which could kill 10s of thousands of people in a matter of mere months.

Lack of hope for a political settlement and real international action heralds the start of the world’s worst food crisis in decades, aggravating the world’s worst displacement crisis at a time when the nation’s unemployment rate is surging to an all-time high and its banking system is collapsing.

The conflicting parties are responsible for the deteriorating humanitarian conditions, as they are persistently breaking international humanitarian laws; despite constantly claiming to be trying to hold those who break the law accountable, they have not taken any concrete action on the ground to improve the situation themselves.

The international community must end military operations and respect the will of the Sudanese people by promptly forcing the perpetrating parties in Sudan to cease their violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law; prosecuting those responsible; bringing justice to all victims; and creating safe corridors for humanitarian aid to reach vulnerable civilians.

[arrahmahcom]

Lebih 100 Orang Tewas dalam Pembantaian Sebuah Desa di Sudan

KHARTOUM (Arrahmah.id) – Pasukan Dukungan Cepat (RSF) paramiliter Sudan menyerbu sebuah desa di negara bagian Al-Jazira dan menewaskan lebih dari 100 orang, kata seorang pejabat pada Rabu (5/6/2024). Gubernur Al-Jazira Al-Tahir Ibrahim Al-Khair mengatakan kepada Kantor Berita resmi Sudan bahwa “tindakan brutal” yang dilakukan oleh RSF di dan sekitar Wad Al-Noora merupakan “kejahatan perang yang…

[warningsine]

PORT SUDAN, SUDAN — 

Paramilitary forces battling Sudan's regular army for more than a year said Saturday they had taken a key state capital in the southeast, prompting thousands to flee, witnesses said.

"We have liberated the 17th Infantry Division from Singa," the capital of Sennar state, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) announced on the social media platform X.

Residents confirmed to AFP: "The RSF have deployed in the streets of Singa," and witnesses reported aircraft from the regular army flying overhead and anti-aircraft fire.

Earlier Saturday, other witnesses said there was fighting in the streets and "rising panic among residents seeking to flee."

Sudan has been gripped by war since April 2023, when fighting erupted between forces loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the RSF led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.

The conflict in the country of 48 million has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions and triggered one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

The latest RSF breakthrough means the paramilitaries are tightening the noose around Port Sudan on the Red Sea, where the army, government and U.N. agencies are now based.

The RSF controls most of the capital Khartoum, Al-Jazira state in the center of the country, the vast western region of Darfur and much of Kordofan to the south.

Sennar state is already home to more than 1 million displaced Sudanese. It connects central Sudan to the army-controlled southeast.

Posts on social media showed thousands of people fleeing in vehicles and on foot, and witnesses told AFP, "Thousands of people have taken refuge on the east bank of the Blue Nile" river east of Singa.

RSF forces are also besieging the town of El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state.

On Thursday, a report cited by the United Nations said nearly 26 million people in war-torn Sudan are facing high levels of "acute food insecurity."