Insights from the Sudan Tribune, Foreign Policy and El País
The news
The number of internally displaced people in Sudan could soon reach 10 million, the United Nations migration agency said on Friday.
In April 2023, fighting broke out between the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese army. These quickly spread across the country, leading to the world’s largest displacement crisis. ”How much suffering and loss of life Must the people of Sudan hold out before the world notices?” a UN official from the International Organization for Migration told Reuters.
The country is also at risk of a hunger crisis more than 18 million people are acutely hungryseveral UN agencies warned in May.
SIGNALS
Aid to Gaza and Ukraine was given priority over ‘underfunded’ Sudan
The UN has said it needs $2.7 billion to finance its humanitarian projects in Sudan. But so far, the UN’s efforts have only increased 16% of the money they need, and other humanitarian responses for Sudan continue seriously underfunded. “Attention has increased due to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and Sudan has fallen lower and lower on the priority list,” wrote two International Rescue Committee staffers. The humanitarian crisis is further complicated by the military junta’s attempts to restrict aid to areas controlled by the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group. “What they’re actually doing is making sure that the the aid remains in their area,” a Doctors Without Borders employee told El País.
The US is pushing for talks, but Sudan remains low on the agenda
Sudan is low on US priority list, experts say; ceasefire talks between the country’s two warring sides have not been led by top US officials, and efforts to appoint a presidential envoy to Sudan reporting directly to the White House came up short. Instead, the US has appointed a special envoy who reports to an assistant secretary of state. The envoy recently spoke to a nearly empty room at a US Congressional hearing, Foreign Policy noted. “We as Americans define the soul of our nation by the way we frankly allow such a nightmarish scenario to pass. undiscussed and unfocused,” said Senator Cory Booker last week.
Conflicts in Sudan could destabilize the region
Experts fear that a prolonged conflict could further destabilize not only Sudan, but much of the African continent. More than ten million Sudanese have fled to neighboring countries that have little capacity to accommodate displaced people.unbearable tension” about Chad, one of the poorest states in the world. Sudan’s position at the crossroads of the Horn of Africa, the Sahel and North Africa means that “it could once again become an ideal environment for terrorist and criminal networks,” warned a recent threat report from a US intelligence agency. “The prospects of controlling the illicit flow of drugs, weapons, migrants and fighters through unstable regions of Africa can all be said goodbye if Sudan collapses,” one expert said. Foreign policy.
