The ‘forgotten war’ in Sudan gets more devastating

Sudan’s ruler General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan ruled out negotiation with paramilitaries after he survived a drone attack on Wednesday in the war-torn country’s east.

The army said five people were killed in a drone attack on a ceremony at the Gibet base, where Burhan was overseeing a graduation ceremony.

“We will not retreat, we will not surrender, and we will not negotiate,” Burhan, who appeared unharmed, told troops at the Gibet base after the attack.

“We are not scared of drones,” he said at the Gibet base, about 100 kilometres (62 miles) from Port Sudan, where the army-aligned government fled after war broke out with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April last year.

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There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

The United States has invited both sides to negotiations next month in Geneva, which Sudan’s foreign ministry said must be preceded by “more discussions” on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Burhan ruled out talks with the RSF.

Any peace initiative “must recognise, invite and consult the Sudanese state”, he said, referring to his government.

“We will not lay down our guns until we clean this country of every conspirator and every rebel,” he vowed.

Already, the war – which Burhan says the army intends to win “with our head high” – has killed tens of thousands of people, with some estimates of up to 150,000, according to US envoy to Sudan Tom Perriello.

It has also caused mass human rights violations and triggered the world’s largest displacement crisis, according to the United Nations.

Over 10 million people are currently displaced across Sudan, most in areas facing looming famine and worsening humanitarian conditions as fighting spreads.

Wednesday’s attack was the first on a military base in Sudan’s eastern Red Sea state, where the army, government and the United Nations have all relocated their headquarters.

The RSF controls most of the capital Khartoum, the central Al-Jazira state, nearly the entire vast western Darfur region, as well as large parts of Kordofan in the south.

It launched an offensive last month on Sennar state in the country’s southeast, claiming the state capital and displacing more than 130,000 people, according to the UN.

Paramilitaries are also besieging El-Fasher – the capital of North Darfur state and the largest city in the region not yet under the control of the RSF – cutting off food and water to hundreds of thousands of civilians.

Sudan’s brutal civil war began in April 2023, which pits the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) against the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group.

The power struggle between the leaders of these two groups, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, for control of Sudan has been devastating.

The RSF recently said it had captured a key base near the border with South Sudan. RSF fighters “successfully liberated the 92nd Brigade (base) in the strategic Miram area in West Kordofan state,” the group said on social media site X.

Starvation as weapon

Both sides in Sudan’s brutal civil war are using starvation as a weapon of war, UN experts said, adding that foreign governments providing them military support were “complicit” in war crimes.

The conflict in Sudan has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and has provoked one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

Four independent UN rights experts pointed out that more than 25 million civilians have been left hungry and in urgent need of aid, amid warnings of a looming famine.

“Both the SAF and the RSF are using food as a weapon and starving civilians,” said the experts, including the special rapporteur on the right to food.

They highlighted the ongoing siege of El-Fasher, the last city in Darfur outside RSF control, which had left hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped and suffering from hunger and thirst amid a dire lack of food and water.

“The extent of hunger and displacement we see in Sudan today is unprecedented,” said the experts, who are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council but who do not speak on behalf of the United Nations.

In a press statement, they demanded that both sides “stop blocking, looting and exploiting humanitarian assistance”.

“The deliberate targeting of humanitarian workers and local volunteers has undermined aid operations, putting millions of people at further risk of starvation,” they said.

The experts maintained that, “foreign governments providing financial and military support to both parties in the conflict are complicit in starvation, crimes against humanity and war crimes”.

The experts did not name the countries, but they called on the parties to the conflict to agree to an immediate ceasefire and to inclusive political negotiations.

Acute food insecurity

Some 25.6 million people, or more than half of Sudan’s population, are facing high levels of “acute food insecurity”, a report cited by the United Nations has said.

That figure includes 755,000 people who are facing famine, while 8.5 million face “emergency” conditions, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said.

“Fourteen months into the conflict, Sudan is facing the worst levels of acute food insecurity ever recorded by the IPC in the country,” the report said.

It pointed to “a stark and rapid deterioration of the food security situation” compared with the previous figures published in December, with a 45 per cent increase in people facing high levels of acute food insecurity.

“The conflict has not only triggered mass displacement and disruption of supply routes… it has also severely limited access to essential humanitarian assistance, exacerbating an already dire situation,” the IPC said.

It further cited “highly dysfunctional health services, water contamination and poor sanitation and hygiene conditions”.

People trapped in conflict areas and those who fled the fighting, whether internally or abroad, are especially vulnerable to food insecurity, the report said.

‘Over 10 million displaced’

According to Dr Mohammed Ibn Chambas, the Chairman of the African Union High-level panel on the resolution of the crisis, the lingering crisis in Sudan has displaced 10 million people while two million others have become refugees.

“There is a very serious humanitarian crisis there; it is a very worrisome situation,” Chambas said.

He expressed regrets that the media was not reporting what he called the scary situation in Sudan.

“The unfortunate thing is that the Sudanese situation doesn’t get to the front pages. It doesn’t get to the news. It is not Gaza or Ukraine.

“It is necessary to tell this story. The world needs to hear the Sudanese story. Any African coverage of this tragedy will be welcomed,” he said.

Also speaking, a security analyst in Nigeria, Senator Iroegbu, said the conflict in Sudan is a prime example of what the Geopolitics Series termed “Forgotten Wars.”

Iroegbu who is also the convener of Geopolitics Series and the Editor-In-Chief of Global Sentinel lamented that while global attention and media focus are directed towards the wars in Euro-Asia, such as Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas, the devastating situation in the African country is largely overlooked.

“This disparity is striking, as the UN and other global entities prioritise ceasefire efforts and lasting peace in Israel and Ukraine, yet simultaneously, major powers clandestinely supply weapons to various factions in Sudan, perpetuating the violence with minimal attention towards a peaceful resolution.

“This narrative perpetuates the notion that Africa holds little significance in geopolitics, serving only as a battleground for great power competition.

“Beyond the pressing issues of hunger, genocide, destruction, and displacement in Sudan, there is a significant risk of conflict spill-over into other African regions, including Nigeria.

“This concern is underscored by the lessons learned from post-Gaddafi Libya, where the unchecked flow of small arms and light weapons has fuelled extremism and terrorism in the Sahel region.

AU against external interference

Meanwhile, Dr Ibn Chambas has restated the African Union’s position against external interferences in the Sudan war situation.

Chambas, also AU High Representative for Silencing the Guns, spoke on outcome of the first phase of the preparatory meeting of the Inter-Sudanese Political Dialogue that started from July 10 to 15, in Addis Ababa.

According to him, the dialogue organised for stakeholders of the AU and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) sought to peacefully resolve the armed conflict situation in Sudan.

Chambas said, “The danger of any of these plans, of course, is that outside interference is always a factor. That is why Sudanese must also put the supreme interest of their country over any other consideration.

“Otherwise, the longer this conflict lasts the more you will see external interference multiply that can only lead to the detriment of Sudan, as they seek diverse interests rather than Sudanese people.

“The AU and IGAD have severally called for an end to external interference, which fuels the war; if the belligerent of Sudan really wants to be helpful, they should be providing assistance.

“They should provide for the vulnerable Sudanese population, not sending weapons and other war materials which only lead to more suffering, more killings and more destruction of Sudan.

“AU’s position is non-interference by outsiders that fuels the war and leads to more armament to belligerents. AU calls for an end to external assistance to the belligerent which only prolongs the war.”

Chambas, a former Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for West Africa and Head of the UN Office for West Africa (UNOWA), promised to meet Sudanese stakeholders unable to participate in the dialogue.

Talks continue

Talks between a UN envoy and delegations from both warring parties in Sudan continued in Geneva this week. They focused on humanitarian aid and protecting civilians.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s envoy for Sudan, Ramtane Lamamra, invited delegations from the army and the RSF for talks which began last week Thursday.

Lamamra, 72, is a former deputy prime minister of Algeria and was also the foreign minister. He was previously the African Union’s commissioner for peace and security between 2008 and 2013.

Lamamra and his team had several interactions with both delegations throughout the weekend, UN spokeswoman Alessandra Vellucci told a media briefing.

“The teams engaged intensively on the two key items discussed during these talks: humanitarian assistance and protection of civilians,” she said.

The two delegations are comprised of senior representatives of the warring parties and include humanitarian, security and military experts.

The talks are in Geneva, with some of them taking place at the UN’s Palais des Nations headquarters. No end date has been scheduled.

On his part, Dr Ibn Chambers said the next phase of AU-initiated meetings with the warring parties would be held with Taqqadum, SLM Abdul Wahid, SPLM-North-Al Hilu, the Radical Bloc and other Sudanese political and civil actors unable to attend the earlier meeting.

He mentioned others to include the Sudan Liberation Movement, Abdul Wahid, Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, El Hilo, and then what is called the Radical Bloc, and Addis, for similar consultations in Addis Ababa.

“We believe political and civilian actors can also play a role in getting the belligerent groups to stop the fighting because right now the fighting is done by the army and the rebel Rapid Support Forces.

“We have not brought these belligerent groups to the dialogue process yet, because the ceasefire talks are a different track, which is supposed to convene in Jeddah.

“We believe the political talk is important to mobilise political class, civil society, Sudanese youth, women professional groups, that way they would have set the view of all the important stakeholders.

“Specifically, set a small team of all the representatives who will constitute the planning committee for the all-inclusive, comprehensive Sudanese-Sudanese dialogue.

“By so doing we can have an inclusive process with no one left behind, when we bring all the actors together,” he added.

He said bringing stakeholders together would enable the participants to set the agenda and timing of the political dialogue that they would determine themselves, in conformity with the principle of Sudanese-owned and Sudanese-led process,” he said.