Darfur in need of urgent humanitarian assistance amid Sudan conflict, says human rights monitor

Activists and aid groups are asking for attention to be turned towards Darfur, as fighting continues in Sudan.

Since the conflict between Sudan’s army and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group began on April 15th, much international focus has been on the situation in capital city Khartoum.

Darfur, a region in south and southwest Sudan, which is home to around 10 million people, has been the site of recurrent violence since 2003. In 2020, a long-running peacekeeping mission ended there.

Ahmed Gouja, a local journalist and human rights monitor, said clashes between the RSF and the Sudanese army have been heavy in every state in Darfur apart from the east. Hundreds of civilians have been killed, he said.

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“We have experienced many, many, many terrible situations,” said Mr Gouja, speaking to The Irish Times through WhatsApp messages. “Militias have been taking everything, looting, killing and burning. They have destroyed public service places like the headquarters of the financial ministry as well as universities, many hospitals.”

A ceasefire committee set up by religious leaders had some success stopping violence in certain areas, he said.

But new RSF checkpoints have seen fighters “abusing and violating civilians by punishing them, beating them and investigating them,” he said.

Darfur was already home to camps of people who were already displaced before this conflict, and are getting no humanitarian assistance at the moment, Mr Gouja said. “They have lost everything during the 2003 war. Right now in [internally displaced person] camps there is the biggest need. They have nothing.”

“The most important challenge is for the children,” he added.

The rainy season will exacerbate the problems, Mr Gouja predicted, bringing in the risk of cholera and other diseases. “Right now what we need is humanitarian support. Our health system has been destroyed by the war.” He also said there’s a need for emergency food distributions.

“We are talking about the entire Darfur population ... Food, water, healthcare, these are the basic needs ... If they do not respond soon, a disaster is going to be happening.”

Mohamed Osman, Sudan researcher for Human Rights Watch, said there have been a lot of “vulnerabilities” in Darfur since 2019, including “so-called intercommunal violence”, along with a high level of mobilisation and the targeting of displaced people by armed militias and the RSF.

He said the priority now should be “civilian protection, humanitarian assistance and accountability”.

In a testimony sent to The Irish Times, Fleur Pialoux, the outgoing Médecins Sans Frontières project co-ordinator for El Geneina city in West Darfur, said fighting started there on April 24th. “Armed groups started targeting key locations inside the city. In the following days, fighting broke out in most neighbourhoods. Looting of the market, hospital, pharmacies and cars became the daily norm,” she said.

“From our windows we saw the smoke as sites that had been hosting more than 100,000 displaced people were burnt to the ground. Across the city, people were left without power and water for days. Mobile networks were down. Banks were closed and unable to process payments, leaving many people with no access to money for essentials like food, fuel or medicine. Hundreds of people were wounded or killed, but virtually no health facilities were able to function.”

MSF was supporting a hospital in the city, which shut after the fighting began, and was looted on May 12th.

“Since the current conflict began, patients have been unable to access medical care due to fear of violence both outside and within medical structures. Additionally, patients fear being targeted based on their ethnicity or affiliation,” said Ms Pialoux.