With the media spotlights pointing to the war in Gaza or the conflict in Ukraine, Sudan this week marks a year of open war that has destroyed the foundations of the African country and caused desolation of biblical proportions.
The fighting in Sudan has caused more than 14,700 deaths (41 per day), many of them civilians, in addition to 8.6 million internally displaced people, most of them to Chad or South Sudan, making it the largest displaced persons crisis. of the world.
But beyond the unleashed hunger (half of the children – 14 million – urgently need food), the hundreds of sexual violations of women and girls, the massacres with the aroma of ethnic cleansing or the 19 million children who have abandoned school, another heartbreaking figure underlines the feeling of oblivion: the United Nations humanitarian response plan to serve the population in desperate situations has only received 5.8% of the required funds.
In an attempt to correct this deadly disinterest, an international donor conference was held yesterday in Paris, sponsored by France, Germany, the European Union and the UN, with the goal of raising $1 billion for Sudan.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, announced yesterday on social networks that Spain will make “a new contribution of 2 million” for the African country.
During the Paris summit, his French counterpart, Stéphane Séjourné, intoned the mea culpa for global oblivion. “It is obvious that a series of crises, and I am thinking of Gaza or Ukraine, have pushed the Sudanese crisis to the background,” he admitted.
Amnesty International's regional director for Eastern and Southern Africa, Tigere Chagutah, described the unsustainable situation on Sudanese soil. “For a year, the people of Sudan have been neglected and ignored as they bore the burden of violent clashes (...). Diplomatic initiatives have so far failed to end human rights violations, protect civilians, provide sufficient humanitarian aid or hold those responsible for war crimes accountable.”
On April 15, 2023, Khartoum, capital of Sudan, woke up to the sound of intense shootings and explosions due to clashes between two generals eager for power: the head of the Sudanese armed forces, Abdel Fatah al Burhan, and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, alias Hemedti, leader of the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (FAR), whose origin is the terrible Janjawid militias, responsible for more than 300,000 deaths in Darfur, in addition to brutal atrocities, investigated by the International Criminal Court.
Both soldiers, who joined forces during the 2021 coup d'état to end the democratic transition after the fall of dictator Omar Al Bashir after months of massive demonstrations, later clashed over the leadership of the armed forces and the incorporation of the 100,000 soldiers of the FAR in the army.
