Sudan. The largest humanitarian catastrophe today

The civil war in Sudan has been dragging on for over two years. The media of conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East has overshadowed one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent history. More than 150,000 dead, 14 million displaced and more than 30 million people needing humanitarian aid are the catastrophe numbers.

« A year after the beginning of the war in Sudan, » said Will Carter, national director of the Norwegian Council for refugees in the country last year, « the civilian population is starving, suffering mass sexual violence, being the victim of large -scale ethnic murders and being executed. Another millions of people are displaced and yet the world continues to look the other side.

Historical context
It is not possible to understand this conflict without looking, even briefly, to the history of the young Sudanese nation. For about six decades, from 1899 to 1956, what we know today as Sudan was the Anglo-Egypcian Condominium (Anglo-Egyptian condominium, translating to the letter to Portuguese), a protectorate shared between the United Kingdom and Egypt.
But even though it was independent in 1956, it was in the previous year that the First Civil War broke out, opposing the south to the north mainly by « ethnic, religious and cultural divisions deeply rooted, with the North, predominantly Muslim and Arabic language, in confrontation with the south, diverse, multiethnical and mostly Christian, » reports the EBSCO.

Thus, the desire for independence of the south was very evident from the beginning – something that would definitely materialize only in 2011, with “the southerners of all political quadrants (…) trying to form their own southern block in Parliament, defending a federal constitution with some autonomy to the south. Prison, after a trial later described as « farce » by an inquiry committee. It is estimated that over 17 years of conflict, which extended from 1955 to 1972, died from 500,000 to 1 million people.

It was within the Second Civil War-which lasted 23 years (from 1982 to 2005), killed about 2 million people and whose documentation points to serious episodes of « hunger and atrocities », as referred to by Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)-and following a 1989 coup, which emerged one of the most striking names of postcolonial sudden: Omar Al -ash.
It was under the bashir regime that in 2003, the famous Darfour war, « later condemned by the International Criminal Court (ICC), as a genocide against non -Arab populations, including Fur, Zaghawa and Masalit, in Western Sudan. But Bashir went even further. According to the CFR, « during its regime, Bashir applied a strict interpretation of Sharia, employed private militias and the morality police to enforce his decrees and pursued Christianity, Sunni apostasy, curse and other minority religious activities. »

It was also in his term in 2011, that South Sudan finally obtained its independence. Bashir would remain in power for another eight years, when he was removed through a coup in April 2019, « jointly held by the Armed Forces of Sudan (SAF)-led by General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan-and RSF Security Forces (RSF), a militia led by Mohamed Hamdan » Hemedti « Dagalo. The latter, which are an evolution of « Janjaweed militia, an Arab majority group funded by Bashir, » the CFR adds, were responsible for « brutal attacks and crimes throughout the Darfur region, including mass travel, sexual violence and kids. »

From hope to catastrophe
At the end of 2022, after a period of impasse and another coup in 2021, there seemed to be light at the bottom of the tunnel to Sudan. As reported to Reuters, « the Sudanese political parties and the military signed an agreement that, they say, will open the way to a two -year transition led by civilians to elections. » « The agreement may mark a new phase for Sudan, » he even wrote the news agency, even recognizing that the pact found from the outset « the resistance of protest groups » which opposed « negotiations with the military and Islamist factions to the regime of the deposed leader Omar Al-Bir ».

In 2023, in early April, the CFR explains, « SAF troops aligned themselves on the streets of cartoon and RSF soldiers were highlighted throughout Sudan » and « on April 15, a series of explosions shook cartoon along with an intense shooting. The SAF and RSF leaders accused each other to have triggered first. It is also highlighted the involvement of external groups, such as Russia’s Wagner Group, « and the foreign military influence, namely the United Arab Emirates », which deepened « the rivalry at the center of the Sudanese crisis. »
Since then, Sudan has plunged into a civil conflict once again with catastrophic consequences, according to the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW): “The conflict has caused one of the world’s largest humanitarian disasters, with the hunger confirmed in Darfur’s largest displaced field of displaced people (2024), and the threat of hunger in other regions. Sudan reached the highest level of internal travel in the world, with more than 10.8 million people in September, including 8.1 million displaced since 2023. In September, more than 25 million people faced acute food insecurity, but only about half of the humanitarian response plan was funded. More than 17 million children do not attend school. »

In addition to the HRW humanitarian scourges, this week came the news about a crush outbreak that has already killed 172 people and left more than 2,000 patients (…), authorities reported on Tuesday, while an important medical group warned that existing health facilities could not respond to the increase in the number of patients, ”said Associated Press. The US agency also mentions a statement where Sudanese health minister Haitham Mohamed Ibrahim, ‘attributed the rise in the return of many Sudanese to the Khartoum region (…). According to the minister, the return of these Sudanese has affected the scarce water resources of the city.

Thus, Sudan represents the worst humanitarian crisis today, with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to « appeal urgently to the international community to make funds available to respond to the growing crisis, » despite media neglect.