Latest news with #Abdel-FattahBurhan
DW
07-08-2025
- Politics
- DW
A Sudanese city is starving: What can be done to help? – DW – 08/07/2025
The eastern Sudanese city of El Fasher has been under siege for almost a year. Fighters in the country's civil war have blocked all roads, putting around 300,000 inhabitants at risk of famine. Warnings have been coming for months. Last December, the global hunger monitor Integrated Food Security Phase Classification reported famine in two camps near the north-western Sudanese city of El Fasher, home to hundreds of thousands of displaced people. Even then, they warned Sudan's ongoing civil war could see famine spread into the city by May. The warning was prescient. El Fasher, the capital of the state of North Darfur, has now been under siege for over a year now. This week, the United Nations and a number of its agencies warned that approximately 300,000 people trapped inside the city face starvation. "WFP [the World Food Program] has not been able to deliver food assistance to El Fasher by road for over a year as all roads leading there are blocked," the UN aid program said in a statement. "The city is cut off from humanitarian access leaving the remaining population with little choice but to fend for survival with whatever limited supplies are left." Many residents are resorting to eating hay or animal fodder. Food that is available in the city costs significantly more than elsewhere in Sudan, making it unaffordable for most people. "What we really need now is for a humanitarian pause to be agreed upon so that we can safely transport urgent food and nutrition supplies into the city," Leni Kinzli, a WFP spokesperson based in Sudan, told DW. Sudan's civil war began in early 2023 when two rival military groups — the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) — started fighting for control. The SAF, with about 200,000 personnel and led by the country's de facto leader Abdel-Fattah Burhan, operates like a regular army. Burhan's government, based in Port Sudan on the Red Sea, is recognized as Sudan's government by the UN. The RSF, estimated to have 70,000 to 100,000 fighters and headed by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti. It functions more like a guerrilla force and includes the infamous Janjaweed militias, notorious for their brutality in Darfur in the early 2000s. Both sides have been accused of war crimes. El Fasher remains the only urban center in the Darfur region not controlled by the RSF. If the RSF wins here, they would control almost all of western Sudan. The SAF-aligned militias inside El Fasher, known as the Joint Forces, prevent a complete RSF victory. This is why the RSF has laid siege to the city since April 2024, digging trenches and regularly launching attacks on it. The situation worsened in April when the RSF attacked two camps near El Fasher sheltering over 500,000 displaced people. Many fled into the city or nearby towns. As the Joint Forces inside El Fasher lose ground, the RSF has tightened the siege in recent moments, said Shayna Lewis, senior adviser on Sudan for the US-based group PAEMA (Preventing and Ending Mass Atrocities). "The Rapid Support Forces have besieged the city for over a year at this point," she told DW in a televised interview. "But it's particularly in the past few months that they've tightened that blockade. Nothing is coming in and out. We used to have donkey carts that carried food into the city but now barely anything is able to even be smuggled in." Locals say the RSF aims to starve out SAF-allied forces. There are also reports that some of the forces inside the city are preventing civilians from leaving, using them as a protective buffer. "They attacked us; it was exhausting," Enaam Mohammed, a Sudanese woman who fled El Fasher for the nearby town of Tawila, told journalists this week. Tawila, around 40 kilometers (25 miles) away, has seen a massive influx of around 400,000 displaced people since April. Diseases like cholera and measles are now spreading there. "[They asked us] 'Where are the weapons? Where are the men?'" Mohammed continued, describing her experience with the RSF. "If they find someone with a mobile phone, they take it. If you have money, they take it. If you have a good, strong donkey, they take it." Mohammed says she also saw the RSF killing people and raping women. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Currently the conflict is at what analysts have described as a "strategic stalemate." Alongside other smaller groups, the RSF controls much of western Sudan, while the SAF controls the east. Earlier in July, the RSF set up their own civilian government, effectively splitting Sudan in two. There is no credible peace process and heavy fighting is ongoing in other parts of Sudan too. "Both parties view the conflict through a zero-sum lens," analysts at the Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI) wrote earlier this year. "The victory of one side is entirely dependent on the defeat of the other." Neither side wants to negotiate, observers say. Exacerbating that is foreign backing for the different fighting groups. In July, the US postponed a meeting about Sudan that would have brought together Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. The Saudis and Egyptians are thought to support the SAF and the UAE, the RSF — all deny providing military aid to Sudanese groups. The meeting is now planned for September. This week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called SAF leader Burhan to ask for a week-long ceasefire that would allow aid into El Fasher. Burhan agreed but the RSF has yet to consent. The impact of the war also goes well beyond the besieged city of El Fasher, the WFP's Kinzli pointed out. The UN regularly calls what is happening in Sudan the world's largest humanitarian crisis. Aid agencies estimate that around 12 million people of Sudan's 46-million-strong population have been displaced by the conflict and that around 150,000 people have died as a result of it. There are famine conditions and infectious diseases in other parts of the country too. "What we need from the international community is two things," Kinzli said. "One, of course, is funding — because the scale of needs in Sudan is just so high. We're looking at 25 million people who face acute hunger and that's a moderate estimate. The resources we have available are just not able to meet that level of need." The second thing aid agencies like the WFP would like to see is "increased attention and engagement" with Sudan from the international community, she argues. "Primarily to help bring an end to this conflict by bringing all parties to the table, but also to join us in our calls for unfettered humanitarian access," she says. "What needs to happen in Sudan is that the flow of aid needs to be larger than the flow of weapons," Kinzli concluded. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
DW
01-08-2025
- Politics
- DW
Sudan: Is a rival government splitting the country in two? – DW – 08/01/2025
The new rival "Government of Peace and Unity" in Darfur has not been internationally recognized. But observers fear it could bring more civil war, humanitarian suffering and even split the country in two. War-torn Sudan appears one step closer to breaking up. Last weekend, a Sudanese coalition led by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) announced the establishment of a rival government in Darfur. The announcement had been widely expected after the RSF — which holds nearly all of the Darfur region and parts of the south — and other armed groups had formed the Sudan Founding Alliance (TASIS) in March. At the time, the alliance said it would soon establish a "Government of Peace and Unity" in areas under its control. But now, the newly formed "Transitional Peace Government" with RSF leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo as president claims to have jurisdiction over all of Sudan. In a statement, TASIS said it was committed "to build[ing] an inclusive homeland and a new, secular, democratic, decentralized, and voluntarily unified Sudan founded on the principles of freedom, justice, and equality." Unsurprisingly, the internationally recognized government under the leadership of General Abdel-Fattah Burhan and Prime Minister Kamil al-Taib Idris — who control the capital, Khartoum, along with the north, east and center of the country — has swiftly rejected the rival administration as "artificial construct" and "illegitimate entity." The African Union with its 55 member states also said it would not recognize a "so-called parallel government" in Sudan. The AU pointed out that the establishment of the new government "has serious consequences on the peace efforts and the existential future of the country." Similarly, the UN has warned that the existence of the new administration could deepen Sudan's fragmentation and complicate diplomatic efforts to end the war in Sudan. The war began in April 2023 when Sudan's army chief Burhan and the RSF's Dagalo fell out over the inclusion of the RSF into the Sudanese Armed Forces, or SAF. "By announcing a government structure, the RSF is attempting to force itself into international discussions not as a militia to be disarmed, but as a political stakeholder with parallel governing authority," said Amgad Fareid Eltayeb of the Sudanese think tank Fikra for Studies and Development. "Behind this lies a carefully timed and deeply political maneuver with far-reaching consequences for the narrative battle over legitimacy, governance and international engagement in Sudan's catastrophic war," he told DW. In his view, the announcement was clearly timed to precede a planned meeting of the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. Representatives from those four countries had hoped to launch a political dialogue between Sudan's army and the paramilitary RSF in order to issue a joint statement calling for an end of the hostilities and for improved humanitarian access. But that meeting, originally planned for late July, was canceled at short notice. A new date is yet to be determinedm with some diplomats suggesting it could be rescheduled for September. "The UAE inserted a last-minute change to include no presence for both the army and the RSF in Sudan's future transitional process," a diplomatic source told the news agency AFP. Amgad Fareid Eltayeb, who previously served as assistant chief of staff to the former Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and as political adviser to the UN special political mission in Sudan, believes the UAE "added the stipulation as camouflage to justify pro-RSF support as they are not genuine about democratic or civilian transition in Sudan." Many other observers agree that the war in Sudan continues to be fueled by international actors. "The mounting evidence of Emirati involvement in arming and financing the RSF has placed Abu Dhabi in an increasingly uncomfortable position," said Amgad Fareid Eltayeb. The UAE have been widely accused of arming the RSF, although Abu Dhabi has denied such allegations. That's despite multiple reports from UN experts, diplomats, US politicians and international organizations. Cairo, one of the fiercest supporters of the SAF, called the last-minute stipulation "totally unacceptable," according to the same source speaking to AFP. The establishment of the rival administration in Darfur comes at a time of intensified fighting in central and south Sudan. None of this spells hope for an end to the war or any improvement for the world's largest humanitarian and displacement crisis. According to this week's report by the UN Refugee Agency, "there are now 12.0 million forcibly displaced due to the outbreak of conflict in Sudan since April 2023, including 7.7 million internally and 4.1 million in neighbouring countries." International bodies estimate that the death toll has surpassed 150,000 people. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video On Wednesday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs raised alarm over the rising toll of hunger, disease and displacement in various conflict-ridden parts of Sudan. Both sides of the war remain sanctioned for war crimes. Earlier this year, the US accused the RSF under General Dagalo of committing genocide, as well as grave human rights violations. The SAF under General Burhan has been accused of deadly attacks against civilians and undermining the goal of a democratic transition. "Both parties to the conflict are obliged to provide aid to population under their control, including allowing humanitarian access," Mohamed Osman, Sudan researcher in Human Rights Watch's Africa Division, told DW. "In most of Darfur where the RSF is in control and where they established their own parallel government, the RSF have shown little regard for human lives and have obstructed or looted aid deliveries," he added. This observation is echoed by Amgad Fareid Eltayeb. "In areas under its sway, the RSF has not established order, justice or public services but has unleashed a reign of terror characterized by systematic sexual violence, massacres, looting and infrastructural devastation," he said. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
Toronto Star
27-06-2025
- Politics
- Toronto Star
Sudan's military accepts UN proposal of a weeklong ceasefire in El Fasher for aid distribution
CAIRO (AP) — Sudan's military agreed to a proposal from the United Nations for a weeklong ceasefire in El Fasher to facilitate U.N. aid efforts to the area, the army said Friday. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called Sudanese military leader Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan and asked him for the humanitarian truce in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur province, to allow aid delivery.
NBC News
25-05-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
Africa's largest war: Atrocities, alleged war crimes and countless civilians caught in the crossfire
Wracked by violence in which thousands of civilians have been slaughtered, aid camps burned to the ground and hundreds of children raped, Africa's largest war has torn Sudan apart and forced more than 12 million people from their homes. The cataclysmic battle for supremacy has pitted the Sudanese military, controlled by the country's top commander, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by his former deputy, Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Daglo Mousa — a former camel dealer widely known as Hemedti. The conflict has created the world's biggest humanitarian crisis, according to the United Nations which says at least 24,000 people have been killed, though activists say the number is far higher. Both sides face war crimes accusations from the United States which sanctioned the northeast African nation's government for using chemical weapons on Thursday — a claim it denied. The RSF meanwhile, has denied accusations of ethnic cleansing in the country where 'some 30.4 million people — over two thirds of the total population — are in need of assistance, from health to food and other forms of humanitarian support,' according to a February report from the United Nations refugee agency. After the war entered its third year last month, NBC News spoke to three people who have been caught in the crossfire. 'You just have to walk' Around seven months pregnant with her first child, Abeir Abdelrahman said she was resigned to losing her baby as she fled her home in the Jabra neighborhood in the south of Sudan's capital, Khartoum, which had been overrun by RSF gunmen in September 2023, five months after the fighting began. 'You have to walk. Just walk. And you have to walk quickly because at any time bombs and shots are going to be there,' she told NBC News in a telephone interview this month. 'At one point I thought: 'It's OK. You lose the baby, but you will be alive with your family. You'll be safe with your husband, so God will give it to you again,'' she added. But as they trekked south, she said they lost contact with her 63-year-old father, who had fallen behind. After four days of frantic backtracking, she said they discovered he had been arrested at an RSF checkpoint and accused of stealing his own belongings. 'We were all very scared,' she said, adding that they feared he might be shot. 'My mom didn't eat for a long time,' she said. Around the same time she found out that her brother, who had decided to stay home, had been seriously wounded in a rocket attack, she said. After 35 days in captivity, Abdelrahman said her father was released. Although he had cholera and malaria, he was relatively unharmed, she said. Her brother survived surgery despite almost losing a leg. Abdelrahman moved with the rest of her family farther south to Jazirah state, where she gave birth to her daughter, Samiya, now 16 months old. 'Everyone was in tears, my mom, me and dad, just a moment full of joy, and I just felt lucky, and I felt blessed that God helped me and protected her,' said Abdelrahman, who is now teaching English in the eastern city of Kassala. 'Samiya is a girl of the war because she's strong. And whenever she's going through things in her life, even when she gets bigger, I'm sure she will overcome them,' she added. 'Guns at my face' Others like, Amr Ali, 39, did not get the chance to flee. An IT worker and freelance photographer, he said he spent 10 years in the Netherlands before returning to Sudan in August 2021 with plans to open a photography business and settle down. Just over two years later, as the fighting neared his home in eastern Khartoum, he said he recorded final messages for his mom and sister with 'the sound of the shooting and the bombing' in the background. On Oct. 5, 2023, as bullets ripped into his apartment and rockets exploded nearby, he said he hid under his bed. When he emerged, he said eight or nine RSF members had surrounded him and asked if he was a member of the military. Refusing to believe he was a civilian, Ali said they started 'beating me like crazy.' Accusing him of being in the military, he said they 'were just pointing guns at my face, shooting it next to my ears, next to my feet' and threatening to kill him. Transferred to a nearby gas station that had been turned into a makeshift prison, he said he was hit with 'so many hands, so many punches, so many slaps and the kicking and kicking.' He said he could smell 'weed and alcohol' on the breath of the fighters who hit him with pipes and sticks, and threatened to shoot him in mock executions. The beatings only stopped at night after other RSF fighters complained about the screaming because they were trying to sleep, Ali added. After 10 days, Ali said he was allowed to contact his family who provided evidence that he was a civilian. This, he said, led to a complete change in attitude from his captors, who took him somewhere for a shower and gave him new clothes. Over a large meal, he said an RSF member apologised for his mistreatment. 'I was just confused. We'd gone from beating and 'We will kill you' and 'We will destroy you', to 'Sorry, we will take care of you,'' Ali said. After he was released on Oct. 31, he said he immediately sought medical treatment. His hand had to be re-broken so it could heal properly, he added. Then he fled Sudan for Egypt, where he is waiting to be resettled by the U.N. Asked whether he accepted the RSF's apology, he said, 'Absolutely not. They ruined my country.' 'We had to find a way out' Just across the River Nile in the city of Omdurman, Natasha, a British mother of four, said the 'bombing became so bad' they had to leave her home where the army had set up positions on the roof. NBC News agreed not to use her last name because she fears for her safety. With her husband back in the U.K., she said she moved in with her mother-in-law, Asmaa, 70, and over the course of 18 months watched as law and order broke down and armed gangs roamed the neighbourhood 'stealing from houses and people were getting killed.' A 12-year-old friend of her son 'was shot by a sniper,' Natasha, 47, tearfully recalled, adding that the bullet 'went through him and it went through his sister.' His death was the catalyst in her decision to leave her home, she said, adding that electricity and water had begun to cut out and food had become scarce. With kidnapping common in Sudan, she said she knew her status as a foreigner with white skin made things 'very, very dangerous' for her, so she donned sunglasses and wrapped herself from head to toe before they made their escape in a rickshaw in September. 'I thought: 'OK, I might die on my way out. You know, if I don't do this I'm going to die. I can't just sit here like this. One of us is going to get shot.' So it was just a numb feeling,' Natasha said. She said that her driver cleared RSF checkpoints without stopping, before dropping her off near a military checkpoint. As they neared, Natasha said soldiers fired above their heads and she quickly waved a piece of white clothing. The shooting stopped and they were allowed across the checkpoint. 'I just remember when my husband's mum said to me, 'That's it. It's over. You can take off your shades,'' Natasha said, starting to cry. After the military regained control of Omdurman, she said she was planning to move to a nicer part of the city and open another kindergarten. War crimes and hunger Sudan's military on Tuesday said it had taken full control of the Greater Khartoum region, but the RSF still controls most of the western region of Darfur and some other areas where battles continue to rage. The fighting has been marked by atrocities including mass rape and ethnically motivated killings that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, especially in Darfur, according to the U.N. and international rights groups. In March the United Nations Children's Fund reported that armed men have raped hundreds of children, including some as young as 1. On Thursday, the United States said it would impose sanctions on Sudan's government after determining that it used chemical weapons last year. They will include limits on American exports and U.S. government lines of credit and will take effect around June 6, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement. Sudan rejected the move and described the allegations as false in a statement. Nonetheless, a total of 24.6 million people, or around half the population, are facing acute hunger, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification — an organization that sets a scale used by the United Nations and governments to assess hunger. 'I did my very best not to leave Sudan, but yeah, the situation just wasn't really helping,' Ali, the photographer, said. 'It's not getting better. It's heartbreaking.'
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Famine and atrocities mount as Sudan's civil war enters its third year
CAIRO (AP) — As Sudan marks two years of civil war on Tuesday, atrocities and famine are only mounting in what the U.N. says is the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Last month, the Sudanese military secured a major victory by recapturing the capital of Khartoum from its rival, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. But that has only moved the war into a new phase that could end up with a de facto partition of the country. On Friday and Saturday, RSF fighters and their allies rampaged in two refugee camps in the western Darfur region, killing at least 300 people. The Zamzam and Abu Shouk camps, which shelter some 700,000 Sudanese who fled their homes, have both been stricken with famine, and aid workers cannot reach them because of the fighting. Half the population of 50 million faces hunger. The World Food Program has confirmed famine in 10 locations and says it could spread, putting millions in danger of starvation. 'This abominable conflict has continued for two years too long,' said Kashif Shafique, country director for Relief International Sudan, the last aid group still working in the Zamzam camp. Nine of its workers were killed in the RSF attack. He said the world needs to press for a ceasefire. 'Every moment we wait, more lives hang in the balance,' he said. 'Humanity must prevail.' Here is what is happening as the war enters its third year: Carving up Sudan The war erupted on April 15, 2023, with pitched battles between the military and the RSF in the streets of Khartoum that quickly spread to other parts of the country. It was the culmination of months of tension between the head of the military, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and the RSF's commander, Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo. The two were once allies in suppressing Sudan's movement for democracy and civilian rule but turned on each other in a struggle for power. The fighting has been brutal. Large parts of Khartoum have been wrecked. Nearly 13 million people have fled their homes, 4 million of them streaming into neighboring countries. At least 20,000 people have been recorded killed, but the true toll is probably far higher. Both sides have been accused of atrocities, and the RSF fighters have been notorious for attacking villages in Darfur, carrying out mass killings of civilians and rapes of women. The military's recapture of Khartoum in late March was a major symbolic victory. It allowed Burhan to return to the capital for the first time since the war started and declare a new government, boosting his standing. But experts say the RSF consolidated its hold on the areas it still controls — a vast stretch of western and southern Sudan, including the Darfur and Kordofan regions. The military holds much of the north, east and center. 'The reality on the ground already resembles a de facto partition,' said Federico Donelli, an assistant professor of international relations at Università di Trieste in Italy. Donelli said it's possible the two sides could seek a ceasefire now. But more likely, he said, the military will keep trying to move on RSF-held territory. Neither side appears able to defeat the other. 'Both parties are suffering from combat fatigue,' said Suliman Baldo, director of the Sudan Transparency and Policy Tracker. The RSF is weakened by internal fissures and 'lacks political legitimacy within the country,' said Sharath Srinivasan, professor of international politics at Cambridge University. But it has strong access to weapons and resources, bolstered by support from the United Arab Emirates, Chad, Uganda, Kenya, South Sudan and Ethiopia, he said. 'Without understanding the complex regional geopolitics of this war, it is easy to underplay the RSF's resilience and ability to strike back,' said Srinivasan, author of 'When Peace Kills Politics: International Intervention and Unending Wars in the Sudans.' Famine is deepening Hundreds of thousands of people trapped by the fighting face hunger and starvation. So far, the epicenter of famine has been in the North Darfur province and particularly the Zamzam camp. The RSF has been besieging the camp as it wages an offensive on El Fasher, the regional capital and the last main position of the military in the Darfur region. Amna Suliman, a mother of four living in the camp, said people have resorted to eating grass and tree leaves. 'We have no choice,' she said in a recent phone interview. 'We live in fear, with no communication, no food, and no hope.' Since famine was first declared in Zamzam in August, it has spread to other parts of the province and nearby South Kordofan province. The WFP warned this week that 17 other locations will also soon fall into famine — including other parts of the Darfur region but also places in central and south Sudan — because aid workers cannot reach them. 'The situation is very dire,' said Adam Yao, deputy representative of the U.N. Food and Agricultural Agency in Sudan. Already, at least 25 million people, more than half of the country's population, face acute hunger, including 638,000 who face catastrophic hunger, the most dire rating used by aid agencies, according to the WFP. Some 3.6 million children are acutely malnourished. The needs everywhere are huge In other areas, the military's capture of territory allowed aid groups to reach refugees and displaced people who have been largely cut off from aid for two years. Sudan has been hit by multiple outbreaks of cholera, malaria and dengue in the past two years. The latest cholera outbreak in March killed about 100 people and sickened over 2,700 others in the White Nile province, according to the Health Ministry. The economy has been decimated, with a 40% drop in GDP, according to the United Nations' Development Program, UNDP. Full-time employment has been halved and almost 20% of urban households reported that they have no income at all, it said. At the same time, U.N. agencies and aid groups have faced funding cuts from major donors, including the United States. Only 6.3% of the $4.2 billion required for humanitarian assistance in Sudan this year has been received as of March, said Clementine Nkweta-Salami, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Sudan. 'The reductions come at a time when the needs in Sudan have never been greater, with more than half of the population hungry and famine spreading,' she said. About 400,000 people managed to return to their hometowns in areas retaken by the military around Khartoum and nearby Gezira province, according to the U.N. migration agency. Many found their homes destroyed and looted. They depend largely on local charities for food. Abdel-Raham Tajel-Ser, a father of three children, returned in February to his neighborhood in Khartoum's sister city of Omdurman after 22 months of displacement. The 46-year-old civil servant said he found his house, which had been occupied by the RSF, severely damaged and looted. 'It was a dream,' he said of his return, adding that his life in the largely destroyed neighborhood with almost no electricity or communications is 'much better than living as a refugee or a displaced person.' ___ Associated Press Writer Lee Keath in Cairo contributed to this report.
