A civil war in Sudan has been ongoing since April. Now it appears to be reaching a new stage. According to Arab News, “Sudan’s deadly conflict between a powerful paramilitary force and the army has reached a strategic city that had been a haven for hundreds of thousands of displaced people, and key humanitarian groups say they have been forced to suspend work there or flee.”
The war is between the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary run by General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, and the Sudanese army, run by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan. Sudan was supposed to transition to some kind of democracy, but the generals and paramilitaries have been fighting over the country and plunged it into disaster. Now there are reports that the RSF have taken Wadi Medani southeast of the capital of Khartoum, which appears to escalate the conflict.
Al-Ain News in the UAE has taken a keen interest in what comes next. Beth Van Schaack, the US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice, recently discussed war crimes and abuses taking place in Sudan. “To date, according to the data we have, at least 10,000 people have been killed and over 6.8 million people have been displaced from their homes. Some remain internally displaced, and some have become refugees across an international border. We have all seen chilling media reports that reflect that thousands of people have been swept into detention sites in and around Khartoum, where we know that some have been tortured and some have been killed,” she said on December 14.
With focus on Gaza, little attention to violence elsewhere
The conflict has seen the use of sexual violence “including rape, gang rape, and sexual slavery. Survivors are often unable to access any kinds of medical care or psychological support, thus leaving lasting trauma,” she said. In Darfur, where there had been a genocide under the previous Sudan regime, there is violence today. “We have read numerous, credible reports of RSF and affiliated Arab militias seeking out in particular Masalit people and members of other African communities, hunting for men and boys, shooting people desperately fleeing for their lives, stealing everything of value, and burning the rest,” she said. The US is monitoring the tragedy in Sudan.
It is not clear what might come next. With the Gaza war in focus and the Red Sea, Sudan appears to get less attention. This is despite the fact that the country is important in the region and borders many strategic areas, such as the Red Sea. Stability and peace in Sudan are important. It does not appear much will be done for the thousands fleeing the battles in Sudan. Nevertheless it is important to continue to focus on this conflict and its impact on the region.