#war in darfur

[quotesfrommyreading]

The ongoing war in Sudan and the ensuing humanitarian crisis has pushed people to the brink. At the borders of conflict zones, selling a kidney is becoming a currency of last resort for people seeking refuge. In June 2023, I managed to contact two young Sudanese women who had fled the fighting in Khartoum. In April 2023, Rania was with her friend Fatima, both students at the University of Khartoum, when the RSF raided the main campus, on the banks of the Nile. “We were trying to hide from the fighting,” Rania told me on the phone. “There were a lot of [female] students there who were afraid to leave. We thought we would be safe, but they found us and forced us to have sex with them.”

Soon after that they packed up their belongings and took a bus heading towards the border with South Sudan. They had heard the route south was cheaper than trying to go north to Egypt, and Rania had a brother living in Kampala, Uganda, whom they hoped to join. It was a seven-day journey from Khartoum to Renk, a small town in South Sudan close to the border where thousands of people had set up temporary camps in bleak conditions. A lack of food, water, healthcare and sanitation had left people at increased risk of disease, malnutrition and violence. There were hundreds of new arrivals each day. “People are crammed together under tarpaulins,” Rania said. “There are mosquitoes everywhere. There’s not enough food, water, soap. Everyone is desperate for assistance. It’s chaos.”

When Rania and Fatima arrived at a makeshift camp on the outskirts of the town, they were approached by soldiers in plain clothes selling tickets for flights from a small airstrip outside Renk to South Sudan’s capital, Juba, and the city of Nimule. The flights, which should form part of the humanitarian corridor, are being controlled by armed militias charging exorbitant fees to board them. “They wanted a lot of money,” Rania said. “The price would go up every day. They said if we didn’t have any money we could have sex with them.”

When they refused, they were told there was something else they could sell: a kidney. “They said that this was the only way we were going to get a flight out of here,” Fatima said. “There were two men who had agreed to this [selling a kidney], but I don’t know what happened to them. I was worried that they would kill me and take my kidney.”

Two weeks after Rania and Fatima first arrived in Renk, they messaged me from Kampala. “We received some money from family members in Uganda. They paid a smuggler $500 to take us to Kampala.” Raina said. “There were no humanitarian agencies or government officials transporting people. The drivers, the militias, they are exploiting people every step of the journey.”

In Renk, they had watched as large trucks carried hundreds of people further south to transit camps that were rumoured to be less crowded and better resourced. Others boarded cramped and overcrowded boats down the Nile to the city of Malakal, from which they would attempt to reach Juba, 970km to the south. Each stage of the journey would come at a cost.

“We are telling you this for a reason,” Fatima said. “We desperately need more support for people trapped in Sudan. In Darfur, there is genocide. But no one is talking about it. Women are being raped every day. Children have been killed and abducted. People are desperate. This is when you sell your kidney.”

  —  ‘For me, there was no other choice’: inside the global illegal organ trade

[northgazaupdates]

VERY URGENT!!

Eman and her family are trapped in Sudan without food, water, or healthcare. All around them, the RSF and SAF attacking both each other and the Sudanese people. They have been in this horrible situation for over a year, and are trying to collect funds so that they can evacuate to safety. However, the fees Sudanese people are charged in order to evacuate are absurdly high, and with Eman’s family being large, they are still a long way from reaching their goal.

Now, the RSF is closing in on Eman’s location. Some people are trying to flee, but there is almost no working transportation, and nowhere safe to flee to.

This is the link to her GFM: https://gofund.me/2b201b40

If you cannot or prefer not to use GFM, you may use this site instead: https://chuffed.org/project/111277-help-us-flee-sudan

Thank you

[nuroful]

[khizuo]

Here's an article about this from Medicine Sans Frontiers (MSF)

(February 6, 2024)

[habizuh-studios]

This is a reminder, to everyone. War is still going on in Ukraine. Genocide is happening in Palestine. Sudan needs help. Don't forget. Stay informed.

[sayruq]

[alwaysinbetweeninsaneandinsecure]

This family HAS BEEN ABLE TO FLEE SUDAN!! AND ALSO They are still in need of funds to help with immigration costs. Every give and share helps this family move toward the safety and peace that they so deserve.

[the-eyespy]

🇸🇩 This is Dr. Muhammad Banaga from Sudan. I was stunned by his reply. He is providing medical care to many Sudanese. May Allah reward him for his kindness. He truly proves the saying "HEROES DO EXIST."

[baldwinheights]

[zanderlisle]

Because I struggled to find information on the Sudanese genocide, here's a collection of info I've found, complete with sources and ways to help.

Note: Most of these stats are coming from October of 2023, and numbers have climbed since. Content warning for genocide, war crimes, sexual violence, and more. Please correct me on anything you notice is incorrect.

In April of 2023, the Rapid Support Forces attacked Sudanese Armed Forces bases across Sudan. including the Sudanese capital Khartoum with a population of 6,344,348. While this was initially described as a war between the RSF & SAF, it quickly became a matter that murdered, injured, & displaced millions of civilians. The most notable of the casualties - actress Asia Abdelmajid, singer Shaden Gardood, and former football player Fozi el-Mardi with his daughter Alaa. el-Mardi's wife. Zeinat Ahmed Othman was also wounded by a bullet.

There have been over 9,000 deaths, 12,000 injuries, and 5.4M displacements. There have been a total of 55 foreign deaths from the countries of Ethiopia (15), Syria (15), Congo (10), Eritrea (9), Egypt (2), The USA (2), India (1), and Turkey (1). Journalists and humanitarian workers have been injured, killed, and/or detained.

As of July, there have been 88 reports of sexual assault against women in Sudan blamed on the RSF. Activist Hala al-Karib stated that war rape had become an everyday occurrence with both fighting parties participating.

Over 1.3M people have fled Sudan as refugees. "The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that 1,200 children had died from disease outbreaks in refugee camps in White Nile State since May. In Central Darfur, the head of the Hamidiya refugee camp said at least 43 children had died in the camp since July. UNICEF also estimated that the conflict had led to the number of children being out of school in Sudan to rise from seven million prior to the fighting to 19 million in October 2023." - War in Sudan 2023 Wikipedia

An imminent epidemic of cholera and a collapse of the healthcare system - How to help: donate to SAPA at https://sapa-usa.org

Women are at risk of sexual violence (especially in areas like Darfur) - The Darfur Women Action Group has a donation link AND sample emails to send to your officials They also accept volunteers with media experience

Menstruation doesn’t stop due to war. - Donate to provide Sudanese girls and women with menstrual products

Another IMPORTANT organization currently providing direct medical care in a few states including Khartoum

will hopefully update with more reliable links or resources Also check

@Hometaxsd on Twitter (X) and eyesonsudan.net for other reliable donation sites

https://bbc.com/news/world-africa-65284945…

https://bbc.com/news/world-africa-65467934…

https://bbc.com/news/world-africa-65585746…

https://apnews.com/article/sudan-war-military-rsf-conflict-khartoum-f12975eb72c830ed86ed6a7a49e9658d…

https://dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/violations-against-journalists-in-sudan-war…

https://reliefweb.int/report/sudan/dtm-sudan-monthly-displacement-overview-october-2023…

https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/4296896/diplomat-says-15-syrians-killed-amid-clashes-sudan…

https://theguardian.com/world/2023/may/07/eritrea-accused-of-forcibly-repatriating-civilians-caught-up-in-sudan-fighting…

https://abcnews.go.com/US/2nd-american-dies-amid-violence-sudan-state-department/story?id=98877370

dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/more-than-40-children-die-in-central-darfur-camps-as-fighting-escalates…

https://dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/19-million-children-in-sudan-are-out-of-school-says-unicef

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/turkish-toddler-killed-in-ongoing-clashes-in-sudan/2875179

bnnbreaking.com/breaking-news/egyptian-doctors-killed-in-sudan-conflict-buried-in-backyard/…

https://bbc.com/news/world-africa-65821597…

https://africanews.com/2023/09/19/un-raises-alarm-over-child-deaths-in-sudan-as-health-crisis-deepens/…

https://aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/2/fighting-reignites-between-sudan-army-rsf-in-khartoum

The linked source is a more detailed Twitter thread of Sudan's timeline starting in December 2018 by Kandakat_alhaqq.

[dazedasian]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by SAPA (@sudanese_american_physicians)

#SAPAFloodResponse

Together, We Can Heal Sudan

The devastating floods in Sudan have plunged an already suffering nation into deeper despair.  Ongoing conflict and economic hardship have already left many communities vulnerable. Now, torrential floods have swept across the country, displacing families, destroying homes, and creating a breeding ground for waterborne diseases. Children, the elderly, and the most vulnerable are at heightened risk.

Essential healthcare is more critical than ever. Diarrhoea, cholera, and other illnesses are spreading rapidly, threatening the lives of countless individuals

Your donation today can help us deliver vital supplies, deploy medical teams, and treat those in desperate need. 

Every penny counts. Donate now.

[yearningforunity]

That's my first trip into Darfur, and those are rebel fighters with the Sudanese Liberation Army. Everyone thinks those are women—they’re men actually.

_Lynsey Addario 2004

[northgazaupdates]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by yassmin abdel-magied | ياسمين (@yassmin_a)

Please watch this video by Yassmin Abdel-Magied and visit her Instagram page (linked with video) for information on how to help.

Right now the militant group the Rapid Support Forces are preparing the next stage of a genocide they began in 2003. Over 800,000 people are living or seeking refuge in El-Fasher, Sudan, and the vast majority of them are members of indigenous peoples such as the Fur and the Massalit. These peoples have been the targets of genocide since at least 2003, when the RSF (then known as the Janjaweed or Devils on Horseback) began ethnically cleansing them from Darfur. Now, with so many displaced people gathered in El-Fasher due to the ongoing war, a massacre of horrifying proportions is imminent. Unless international pressure is successfully mounted against the RSF’s financier, 800,000 people are going to be murdered.

Visit EyesOnSudan.net and DarfurWomenAction.org and their partners for more information on the war, and opportunities for action and support

[nuroful]

[khizuo]

The El Geneina Resistance Committee in West Darfur corroborated alarming findings from an unpublished UN Security Council Panel of Experts report on Darfur, which has already been widely circulated. The report, confirmed by a statement on the committee’s official Facebook page yesterday, details how assaults by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) resulted in the deaths of 237 patients. Among them, 37 women who died due to obstetric complications, along with 200 dialysis patients. The committee assert that the RSF, alongside allied militias, targeted health facilities and hospitals in El Geneina, ransacking and destroying them, thereby debilitating the city’s crucial health and treatment services. Eyewitness testimonies further allege the execution of patients within clinics during the attacks.

(February 12, 2024)

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jess Craig at Vox:

After more than a year of neglect from global leaders and massive funding gaps for humanitarian assistance, the war in Sudan has reached a critical tipping point. Warring parties are waging a deadly battle for control of El Fasher — the capital of the state of North Darfur and, until recently, one of the last safe havens for civilians. If the city falls, experts warn there will be dire human rights consequences, ranging from ethnic cleansing to outright genocide for millions of people.

What’s happening in El Fasher is just the latest in the year-long conflict between two rivaling military groups struggling for power after working together to oust Sudan’s former president and his successor. General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the general of the country’s military, known as the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), became the de facto ruler of Sudan in 2021 — but tensions with his temporary ally, the paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), soon boiled over as the leaders attempted to integrate the RSF into the SAF. This tension grew into a civil war last year, one that has created the world’s largest displacement crisis: On Monday, the United Nations told the AP that more than 10 million people — about a quarter of the population — have already been internally displaced since the war began. The SAF and RSF have clashed sporadically in El Fasher, which is the government military’s last foothold in all of western Sudan, but the town has largely been spared the worst of the war until recent weeks. That changed on the morning of May 10, when heavy fighting between the two groups broke out. Near daily bombings, indiscriminate shelling, and airstrikes have rocked the city since. More than 1,000 civilians have been injured and 206 people have died, according to Claire Nicolet, the emergency program manager at Médecins Sans Frontières. Hospitals and camps for internally displaced people have been damaged by gunfire and explosions. Very few aid convoys carrying food and health supplies have reached the estimated 2 million civilians in the city. 

As RSF has expanded its control of other towns in Darfur over the course of the war, they have resorted to ethnic targeting and brutal violence against civilians, including raping, torturing, and killing non-Arab civilians and using racial slurs against them, as Human Rights Watch has documented. Human rights experts are concerned that if El Fasher falls to the RSF, it might trigger a new wave of ethnic cleansing, reminiscent of the genocide that occurred in Darfur in the early 2000s when some 200,000 non-Arab civilians were killed by Janjaweed militias and government forces. The RSF evolved from the Janjaweed militia, an Arab-majority fighting force created by the former president to fight Darfuris in the mid-1980s. 

Although the current war between RSF and SAF is more of a power struggle than a sectarian one, ethnic tensions have long simmered in Darfur since the genocide, Akshaya Kumar, the director of crisis advocacy at Human Rights Watch, explained. If RSF gains the upper hand, they will control the entire Darfur region where most non-Arab communities reside.  The situation is all too familiar. As it was in 2003, the crisis teeters on the brink of famine and genocide. And as was the case then, the world’s worst humanitarian crisis remains unconscionably neglected by the foreign governments and international bodies that have the power to intervene to push for a peaceful resolution or to urge the warring parties to respect international humanitarian law. In the coming months, the humanitarian and human rights situation in Darfur and across Sudan may be finally too harrowing to ignore, but by that point, it may be too late to do anything about it.

Vox takes a look at the vastly under-covered story of the Darfur Genocide and the battle for control of El Fasher in Sudan.