BOTH SIDES ARE ETHNIC CLEANSING

UN chief urges all nations to do everything possible to stop the 'horrible' war in Sudan

EDITH M. LEDERER
Thu, February 8, 2024 

 United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres speaks on Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024, at United Nations Headquarters. The United Nations chief on Thursday, Feb. 8, urged the international community to mobilize and do everything possible to stop the war in Sudan, saying “what is happening is horrible.” Guterres said there is no military solution to the conflict between forces supporting rival generals that began in mid-April 2023. (AP Photo/Peter K. Afriyie, File)More


UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations chief on Thursday urged the international community to mobilize and do everything possible to stop the war in Sudan, saying “what is happening is horrible.”

Secretary-General António Guterres said there is no military solution to the conflict between forces supporting rival generals that began in mid-April 2023, and he stressed that continued fighting “will not bring any solution so we must stop this as soon as possible.”

Guterres told a U.N. press conference that it’s time for the warring rivals — Sudan’s military, Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo — to start talking about ending the conflict, which has killed at least 12,000 people and sent over 7 million fleeing their homes.


The U.N. is working with the regional group IGAD, the African Union and the Arab League, and Guterres expressed hope he will meet with them at the upcoming AU summit on Feb. 17-18 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, “to see how we can converge our efforts to bring these two generals to the table” and achieve a ceasefire and create conditions to get humanitarian aid into Sudan for people in “desperate condition.”

U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths told a news conference in Geneva on Wednesday that the rival generals assured him very recently they would attend a meeting in Switzerland to discuss humanitarian issues and Sudan’s beleaguered civilians. “I’m still waiting to see when that happens,” Griffiths said.

Sudan plunged into chaos last April with street battles between the generals’ rival forces in the capital, Khartoum, that spread to other areas. Western Darfur, which was wracked by bloodshed and atrocities in 2003, has been an epicenter of the current conflict, an arena of ethnic violence where paramilitary troops and allied Arab militias have been attacking African ethnic groups.

In 2005, the Security Council referred the situation in Darfur to the International Criminal Court, which is charged under the Rome Statute that established the tribunal with investigating and prosecuting the world’s worst atrocities — war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide — and the crime of aggression.

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan told the council in late January it was “quite stunning” in visiting different refugee camps in Chad, which borders Darfur, that people who lived through the Darfur conflict from 2003 told him spontaneously that what is happening today “is the worst ever.”

“Based on the work of my office, it’s my clear finding, my clear assessment, that there are grounds to believe that presently Rome Statute crimes are being committed in Darfur by both the Sudanese armed forces and the Rapid Support Forces and affiliated groups,” Khan said.

Secretary-General Guterres urged support for the ICC, saying its role in prosecuting those involved in “atrocities” in Darfur “is absolutely essential.”

Humanitarian chief Griffith and U.N. refugee chief Filippo Grandi appealed for $4.1 billion in international support for embattled civilians in Sudan amid signs that some may be dying of starvation after nearly a year of war.

The agencies said that half of Sudan’s population, or around 25 million people, requires support and protection, and that the requested funds would go to help millions of civilians in Sudan and others who have fled abroad.

'Sudan keeps being forgotten': U.N.

Reuters Videos
Updated Thu, February 8, 2024 

STORY: “Sudan keeps being forgotten by the international community."

The United Nations has urged countries not to forget civilians caught up in Sudan's conflict.

A ten-month war there has devastated the country's infrastructure, prompted warnings of famine, and displaced millions of people.

But despite this, U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths said in Geneva on Wednesday (February 7), it has been "extraordinarily difficult" to get attention on the crisis.

"... Because of course we have all these competing crises, Gaza, we were here in this place for Ukraine the other day, and so forth. But I don't think there's anywhere quite so tragic in the world today as Sudan."

The United Nations is appealing for $4.1 billion to meet the humanitarian needs of those both inside Sudan and those who have fled to neighboring countries.

Griffiths said an appeal last year by the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs was less than half funded.

The international community needs to act now, he added, with a sense of heightened urgency.

“We must not forget Sudan, that's the simple message that I have to say today."


Two decades on, Sudan's Darfuris fear world has abandoned them

AFP
Thu, February 8, 2024 


More than two decades after the outbreak of war in Darfur, fears are growing that the world has abandoned its people as a new conflict ravages Sudan and the perpetrators of atrocities act with impunity.

The vast western region of Sudan was still suffering from the carnage that started in 2003 when a new war erupted last April between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

With the conflict has come a fresh litany of horrors including rampant sexual violence, ethnically motivated massacres and mass displacement.

According to a report by United Nations experts, seen by AFP, the RSF and allied militias have killed between 10,000 and 15,000 people in the West Darfur city of El Geneina alone -- at least five percent of its pre-war population.

Fighters "targeted the Massalit community" in what "may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity", the report said.

The RSF, which emerged from the Janjaweed militia that former president Omar al-Bashir unleashed in Darfur, now controls four out of five state capitals in the vast region.

Civilians have been left to face what one Sudanese researcher called "their worst nightmare".

"The marauders who terrorised them for decades -- raped them, pillaged their lands and murdered them en masse for their ethnicity -- now rule," she told AFP from another country, requesting anonymity to protect family members still in Sudan.
Refugee camp massacres

On October 31, the RSF took the Central Darfur state capital of Zalingei, allegedly committing atrocities including "mass murder, summary executions, arbitrary detention, sexual assault, torture and looting", human rights defender Mohamed Bera told AFP from another country where he has sought refuge.

Internet blackout hits Sudan as UN appeals for $4.1 billion to ease ‘epic suffering’ caused by war

Ingrid Formanek and Nimi Princewill, CNN
Fri, February 9, 2024 


Internet connectivity was shut down for a third day in Sudan amid ongoing clashes between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that have left thousands killed and millions displaced in nearly 10 months of fighting.

Internet monitoring firm, Netblocks confirmed the outage Friday, saying that “a near-total telecoms blackout” has limited communication in the country and prevented the Sudanese people from seeking safe zones and accessing healthcare and banking services.

The Sudanese foreign ministry blamed the RSF for the blackout which further complicates the dilemma of millions of locals unable to flee the conflict and who the UN says are in dire need of humanitarian aid. The RSF has yet to publicly deny responsibility for the blackout.

The UN on Wednesday appealed for $4.1 billion to meet the “most urgent humanitarian needs” amidst “epic suffering” in Sudan, adding that half of its population - some 25 million people need support and protection, with millions hungry and displaced by the war.

Citizens facing acute hunger

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the UN’s Refugee Agency (UNHCR) launched the joint appeal, seeking $2.7 billion for humanitarian aid to 14.7 million people, and $1.4 billion to support nearly 2.7 million refugees in five countries neighboring Sudan.

“Ten months of conflict have robbed the people of Sudan of nearly everything – their safety, their homes and their livelihoods,” said the UN’s emergency aid chief Martin Griffiths, adding that last year’s appeal was less than half funded.

While the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary RSF have both failed to honor their previous commitments to facilitate humanitarian aid for civilians, attacks on humanitarian workers, facilities and supply convoys have taken place since the war’s outset. Humanitarian aid has been severely hampered by the fighting and lack of access.

The RSF on Thursday, in an apparent effort to deflect responsibility for the large scale civilian suffering in Sudan called for “prompt action from regional and international organizations and agencies to provide urgent relief, adding that Sudanese civilians were “facing the real possibility of starvation.”

The organization’s head, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, in a post on X, wrote that the crisis is “largely due to the obstruction of humanitarian aid by the opposing forces”.

Nearly 18 million people are facing acute hunger, according to OCHA, with civilian infrastructure like water supplies damaged by the fighting, and three-quarters of health facilities not functioning in conflict areas.

Some 19 million children not attending school, continued widespread human rights violations, and gender-based violence are among the challenges cited in the UN’s funding appeal.

The war that erupted in April 2023 between Sudan’s Armed forces and the paramilitary RSF has created the world’s largest displacement crisis, with children making up nearly 4 million of those fleeing their homes.

In Sudan’s North Darfur Zamzam camp for displaced people, at least one child dies every two hours from malnutrition, according to estimates by the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders.

Sudan’s two warring factions have been accused of gross human rights violations.

The US determined that both SAF and RSF members have committed war crimes, holding the latter responsible for crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing in Sudan.

The International Criminal Court prosecutor said “there are grounds to believe” genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity – are being committed in Sudan’s Darfur region by both SAF and RSF, and their affiliated groups.