Three months of war and no end in sight in Sudan. The deadly conflict between General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane's regular army and the paramilitaries of General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo's Rapid Support Forces (RSF) continues in the capital Khartoum and the Darfur region in the west of the country, despite attempts at international mediation that have so far failed to bear fruit.
Shelling and artillery fire were again reported on 19 and 20 July in the capital, resulting in further casualties. According to the UN, more than 3,000 people have died since the outbreak of hostilities on 15 April, while three million have fled the violence, including 730,000 outside the country.
In response to the gravity of the situation, the UN this week sent a delegation to Chad, a country bordering Darfur where 260,000 Sudanese have found refuge. While Sudan's neighbors warn of the risks of regional contagion of this crisis, the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, Amina Mohammed, called on the international community to step up its efforts, denouncing a humanitarian "disaster".
In Chad, together with @WFPChief and @UN delegation, to appeal for global solidarity at a time of extreme need.
The people of Chad haven't turned away from their neighbours.
Now is the hour for the international community to stand up for refugees and the host community. pic.twitter.com/ZtE3Fu6JXk
— Amina J Mohammed (@AminaJMohammed) July 19, 2023
To take stock of the situation, France 24 met with Frédéric Joli, spokesman France of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), mobilized on the ground to help civilians fleeing the conflict.
France 24: The Chadian border is the main exit point for Sudanese fleeing Darfur, how is the situation evolving?
Frédéric Joli: The massive influx continues with many wounded, women and children. Our teams are trying to support the Chadian authorities and provide a medical response. The ICRC has deployed a surgical unit in the town of Abéché in eastern Chad, where we are transporting the most seriously injured people whose conditions require surgical needs. We are also present inside Darfur, in Khartoum and in strategic areas such as Wad Madani and Port Sudan.
This is a very serious moment and there is a very real risk of regional contagion because humanitarian resources are not sufficient to meet the needs that continue to grow. At the Chadian border, the Sudanese who arrive in large numbers settle where they can. This situation increases the economic pressure on the country, promotes the risk of social tensions as well as the development of diseases due to lack of hygiene.
Several humanitarian truces have been announced in the past three months, but these have never really been implemented. How can you operate under these conditions?
Access to victims remains very complicated in Darfur and Khartoum, and there is no evidence that the situation is improving. Belligerents fire heavy weapons in densely populated areas and fail to comply with their obligation to distinguish between combatants and civilians. Our mission is to evacuate the wounded and protect wounded combatants who, if they are no longer able to fight, must be afforded the same protection.
In this context, we are obliged to negotiate on a case-by-case basis, to make both parties understand the need to access a street, a neighborhood, to carry out an evacuation operation, which becomes possible only if we get the green light from both parties. It is difficult because we cannot take the risk of acting without security guarantees. These negotiations require the establishment of relationships of trust with the actors of the conflict for whom the humanitarian issue is not the priority. But sometimes it works. That's how we managed to evacuate an orphanage of 300 children in early June in Khartoum.
Another challenge is to help Sudanese find their loved ones. With several million internally displaced, everyone in Sudan is looking for their mother, brother or son, which generates enormous stress on the population. We record people who report themselves as looking for relatives. We activate our networks to help them get back in touch. This involves free access to the telephone or even the granting of travel documents to people who no longer have papers to join their families. Unfortunately, this second option is not currently possible because of the intensity of the fighting.
What are the most urgent needs on which humanitarian work focuses today?
The humanitarian needs are enormous. In combat zones, 80 hospitals no longer function because they are damaged or simply because staff no longer dare to go there. Shortages are multiplying, particularly with regard to drinking water and electricity. For the ICRC, the priority is to support health services that are still functional and to restore access to water, in particular to prevent the outbreak of epidemics.
This conflict, which affects several cities, produced a very heavy toll very quickly, which surprised humanitarian actors. We quickly found ourselves unable to absorb the needs. Today, we still have no visibility because there seems to be no prospect of a way out of the conflict. Added to this is the lack of humanitarian funding for Sudan. It must be recognized, all the lights are red.
Of course, we are witnessing an increase in crises, but we must find a way to manage Ukraine, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Sudan at the same time. The solution to the conflict must be political, humanitarians will not solve all the problems, but in the meantime they are doing what they can. Faced with the emergency, we have no option but to make our operations sustainable, and that requires greater mobilization, particularly on the part of States.
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