13mln Sudanese children in need of aid, protection amid clashes

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
30 May 2023 22:03

Sudanese report clashes with various kinds of weapons in different parts of Sudan amid a failed, extended humanitarian truce between the army and the RSF.

Sudanese people flee their neighborhoods amid fighting between the army and the RSF in Khartoum, Sudan, on April 19, 2023 (UNICEF)

Clashes renewed in Sudan on Tuesday, despite the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces' recent ceasefire vows, which were aimed at enabling crucial relief to reach besieged people, AFP reported.

The US and Saudi mediators announced late Monday that the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) had agreed to extend by five days the humanitarian truce that they frequently violated over the past week.

Since the announcement, residents reported "clashes with various kinds of weapons in southern Khartoum" and fighting in Nyala, South Darfur's state capital, as cited by the news agency.

The mediators admitted that the truce had been "imperfectly observed" but said the extension "will permit further humanitarian efforts."

According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, the war has killed more than 1,800 people.

The UN highlighted that more than a million have been internally displaced and nearly 350,000 have escaped to other countries.

Since battles began on April 15, army leader Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and his former deputy RSF commander Mohammad Hamdan Dagalo have committed to a series of truces, though the US and Saudi Arabia said this seven-page deal is different because the warring parties signed it, and there is a monitoring mechanism.

The United Nations warned on Monday that Sudan has become one of the highest alert areas for food insecurity, requiring "urgent" international action.

More than half of Sudan's population in need of aid, protection: UN

Sudan was already poverty-stricken before the war, with a third of its 45 million people relying on aid.

According to the UN, more than half of Sudan's population -- 25 million people -- are now in need of aid and protection.

The UN children's agency (UNICEF) noted that among them are 13.6 million children, including 620,000 suffering from severe acute malnutrition, "half of whom may die if not helped in time."

Sudan's already crippled economy has collapsed since the war broke out, with businesses shuttered, agri-food factories burned, and warehouses looted.

Entire districts of Khartoum no longer have running water, electricity is only available for a few hours a week, and three quarters of hospitals in combat zones are out of service.

With staff and transport blocked by fighting and shipments stuck in customs, aid agencies have so far only managed to deliver relatively small quantities of food and medicine to conflict areas, as per the AFP.

On Sunday, the UN confirmed that 53 trucks with life-saving supplies -- around one-third of those planned -- had been able to reach their destinations since the truce began.

In its initial weeks, the fighting sparked mass evacuations of thousands of foreign nationals, while many abandoned foreign diplomatic facilities were ransacked.

In the latest such attack, Libya's Foreign Ministry denounced on Tuesday "the assault and looting" of its Khartoum embassy.

Sudan could descend into "total civil war"

The situation is particularly grave in Darfur, the western region that is already ravaged by two decades of war and civil strife.

AFP cited activists and aid workers as saying that Darfur civilians continue to be attacked, entire districts have been burned to the ground, and tens of thousands have been forced to flee into neighboring Chad.

For weeks, the UN has warned that clashes between the army and the RSF in Darfur's major cities have resulted in the existence of local militias, tribal fighters, and armed civilians.

Darfur's governor Mini Minawi has urged citizens to "take up arms" to defend their property.

The Forces for Freedom and Change, the main civilian bloc ousted from power by Al-Burhan and Dagalo in a 2021 coup, warned that Sudan could descend into "total civil war."