Sudan War Now Civilians Caught Between War !
Despite repeated declarations of cease-fires, the fighting in Sudan won’t stop. Battles between forces loyal to two prominent generals, have convulsed the country of 46 million people, paralyzing its teeming capital city Khartoum and prompting a panicked flow of refugees, along an arduous journey to Sudan’s borders. Conservative estimates suggest more than 500 people have been killed, with more than 4,000 wounded.
The numbers arriving at crossings in neighboring Chad and Egypt, are in the tens of thousands, but Filippo Grandi, head of the refugee agency, said his operation and its partners, were anticipating an influx of some 800000 people, should the conflict continue. Among the many trying to leave the country are refugees from other war zones, including Syria, Yemen and neighboring South Sudan, who had earlier found sanctuary in Sudan.
an ethnic Rohingya family, who once fled a genocidal campaign in faraway Myanmar, pleads for assistance. “We are fearful. We need a safe zone because here the situation is very bad, very heavy fighting,” said the father, who was not identified, while carrying a placard that reads: “Please help us.”
Before hostilities, flared last month, a third of Sudan’s 46 million people required humanitarian assistance. Now, conditions are even more grave. Across the country’s major urban centers, particularly in Khartoum, long-insulated from the worst of the many conflicts, that previously ravaged Sudan, countless residents are trapped in vulnerable, desperate conditions. Many report being without electricity, running water and food. Access to urgent health care has, in many places, become virtually impossible. In the western Darfur region, the warehouses of various aid groups, and international organizations have been looted.
With battles, raging and Sudan sliding toward state collapse, the outlook is bleak. Martin Griffiths, the United Nations’ top humanitarian official, warned in a statement Sunday that, in Sudan, “the humanitarian situation is reaching, breaking point” and that the warring parties needed, to ensure safe passage for civilians and help, facilitate relief operations and the personnel carrying them out. “The scale and speed, of what is unfolding in Sudan is unprecedented,” Griffiths said. “We are extremely concerned by the immediate, as well as long-term impact on all people in Sudan, and the broader region.”
While countries, including Saudi Arabia and Britain, have evacuated the largest numbers of people, the United States organized a land convoy on Saturday, that carried some 300 American citizens and other foreign nationals, all the way from the capital to Port Sudan on the Red Sea, under the protection of armed drones. “It’s not like jumping on the Autobahn,” a US official told my colleagues, referring to the German highway system known, for its lack of speed limits. “It’s slow going, with the potential for bad guys all over the place.”
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