Tragedy grips Sudan: civil war ravages the African country and 19 million people face severe famine

Sudan lives in the midst of a civil war.. again. There are already eleven weeks of conflict and more than 3 million people have been displaced (inside or outside the country). The fighting has further complicated the fragile humanitarian situation in Sudan, already one of the countries in the region most affected by malnutrition.

According to the World Food Program (WFP), the violence has led the country to “record levels” of famine. Unicef has received credible reports of at least 435 children killed and 2,025 injured in the last 100 days, an average of more than one per hour.

How many dead and how many displaced?

Since it began on April 15, the conflict in Sudan has already killed more than 3,100 civilians and caused the internal and external displacement of more than 3.1 million people, according to the UN.. Before the current war, there were almost 3.8 million internally displaced people in Sudan, of whom 1.9 million were children.

How many have already left the country?

The number of refugees is now estimated at 737,801 people who have fled the violence in Sudan to other neighboring countries, according to the latest figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM).. Egypt is the country that has hosted the most refugees, a total of 255,565, followed by Chad (238,218), South Sudan (160,798), Ethiopia (62,509), the Central African Republic (16,719) and Libya (2,992).

How many does the famine affect?

More than 19 million people will go hungry in Sudan because of the conflict, according to the United Nations WFP. There are already some 3.5 million children suffering from malnutrition and the agency's delegation in Sudan expects around 2.5 million people to go hungry “in the coming months.”

Serious violations of children's rights occur every hour.”

The UN estimates that around 24.7 million people (almost half of its estimated population) require humanitarian aid throughout the country.. Among them are 4 million children and pregnant or lactating women, who are severely malnourished.

The explanation for why so many millions of people depend on humanitarian aid lies in the increase in prices, frozen wages, increasingly scarce basic services and almost paralyzed supply chains.

How many children have died?

“Serious violations of children's rights occur every hour” in the African country, says Unicef. According to their data, at least 435 children have died and 2,025 have been injured since the start of the conflict.. Of the almost 3.8 million internally displaced persons in Sudan before the conflict, 1.9 million were children. The true number is likely to be much higher.

There are 4.2 million women and girls at risk of gender-based violence

“Another 1.7 million children have been driven from their homes and are now displaced within Sudan and across its borders, vulnerable to hunger, disease, violence and separation from their families.. Reports of kidnappings, recruitment of children by armed groups, selective ethnic violence and gender-based violence against women and girls are also on the rise, with 4.2 million women and girls at risk of gender-based violence,” says UNICEF.

What are the causes of famine?

The first, of course, is the civil war. The fighting has caused delays in planting crops, but also a lack of credit. In addition, it has triggered the prices of fertilizers, seeds and fuels. In the case of the latter, their price has tripled since the conflict began.

Farmers are faced with the challenge of repaying the loans obtained before the start of the war in order to obtain new funds and continue with the planting and harvesting cycle.. Of the nearly 49 million people in Sudan, 65% work in the agricultural sector, according to the FAO.

65% of its almost 49 million inhabitants work in agriculture

Things can get even worse because heavy rains expected this month could prevent planting. FAO has started to distribute emergency sorghum, millet and sesame seeds with the aim of covering the basic food needs of between 13 and 19 million people.

An added factor is the more technical farms, which produce most of the products that Sudan exports.. They are also in difficulties and if they do not produce they do not sell, which heralds an imminent lack of foreign currency with which to import food and essential products.

Who is facing the war?

Two military factions that together carried out a coup in 2021 are now fighting for power. The general who commands the Army, Abdel Fattah al Burhan, and his former number two, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, paramilitary chief of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), face each other.

They maintain armed clashes in various parts of Sudan, mainly in the capital, Khartoum, and in the Darfur region, in the southwest of the country and which borders Chad, the Central African Republic and South Sudan.. The war broke out in Khartoum and at the end of April it spread to West Darfur and then to South Darfur.

Between 2003 and 2008, Darfur was the scene of a bloody war of ethnic overtones. That conflict resulted in more than 300,000 deaths, according to the UN.

What is the origin of the conflict?

At the end of 2018, a series of riots due to the increase in food prices put the dictator Omar Al Bashir on the ropes. The popular mobilizations received the support of the Army, which tried to appropriate the demands and carried out a coup in 2019 that dethroned Al Bashir.

Then, a pact between the military and civil society agreed to a transition period. There were going to be 21 months of a military government and another 18 of a civilian one, after which free elections would come. But that was not what happened. The two military factions allied themselves and have remained in power…until last April. Since then, the Sudanese Army has been at war with the RSF paramilitaries.