2023-07-21 18:16:27
Three months of war and no end in sight in Sudan. The deadly conflict between the regular army of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane and the paramilitaries of Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo persists in the capital Khartoum and in the Darfur region, in the west of the country, despite the mediation attempts international agreements which have so far not borne fruit.
Shelling and artillery fire were once more reported on July 19 and 20 in the capital, causing further casualties. According to the UN, more than 3,000 people have died since the start of hostilities on April 15, when three million fled the violence, including 730,000 outside the country.
Faced with the gravity of the situation, the UN this week dispatched a delegation to Chad, a country bordering Darfur where 260,000 Sudanese have found refuge. While Sudan’s neighbors are warning of the risks of regional contagion of this crisis, United Nations Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed called on the international community to step up its efforts, denouncing a humanitarian “disaster”.
To take stock of the situation, France 24 spoke with Frédéric Joli, spokesperson in France for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), mobilized on the ground to bring aid to civilians fleeing the conflict.
France 24: The Chadian border is the main exit door for Sudanese fleeing Darfur, how is the situation evolving there? ?
Frederic Joli: The massive influx continues with many wounded, women and children. Our teams are trying to support the Chadian authorities and provide a medical response. The ICRC has deployed a surgical antenna in the town of Abéché, in eastern Chad, where we are transporting the most seriously injured people whose conditions require surgical needs. We are also present inside Darfur, in Khartoum as well as in strategic areas such as Wad Madani and Port-Sudan.
The moment is very serious and there is a very real risk of regional contagion because the humanitarian means are not sufficient to meet the needs which continue to grow. At the Chadian border, the Sudanese who are arriving in large numbers are settling where they can. This situation accentuates the economic pressure on the country, favors the risk of social tensions as well as the development of diseases due to the lack of hygiene.
Several humanitarian truces have been announced over the past three months, but these have never really been implemented. How can you operate under these conditions ?
Access to victims remains very complicated in Darfur and Khartoum, and nothing shows that the situation is not improving. Belligerents fire heavy weapons in densely populated areas, they do not respect their obligation to distinguish between combatants and civilians. Our mission is to evacuate the wounded and to protect the wounded combatants who, if they are no longer able to fight, must benefit from the same protection.
In this context, we are obliged to negotiate on a case-by-case basis, to make both parties understand the need to access a street, a neighborhood, to carry out an evacuation operation, which only becomes possible if we obtain the green light from both parties. It is difficult because we cannot take the risk of acting without security guarantees. These negotiations require the establishment of relationships of trust with the actors in the conflict for whom the humanitarian issue is not the priority. But sometimes it works. This is how we managed to evacuate an orphanage of 300 children in early June in Khartoum.
Another challenge is to help the Sudanese find their loved ones. With several million internally displaced people, everyone in Sudan is looking for their mother, brother or son, which generates enormous stress on the population. We register people who report themselves as looking for relatives. We are activating our networks to help them reconnect. This involves free access to the telephone or even the granting of travel permits to people who no longer have papers to join their families. Unfortunately, this second option is not currently possible due to the intensity of the fighting.
What are the most urgent needs that humanitarian work is focusing on today ?
The humanitarian needs are colossal. In the combat zones, 80 hospitals are no longer functioning because they are damaged or simply because the personnel no longer dare to go there. Shortages are on the rise, particularly with regard to drinking water and electricity. For the ICRC, the priority is to support the health services that are still functional and to restore access to water, in particular to prevent the outbreak of epidemics.
This conflict, which affects several cities, produced a very heavy toll very quickly, which surprised the humanitarian actors. We quickly found ourselves unable to absorb the needs. Today, we still have no visibility because there does not seem to be any prospect of a way out of the conflict. Added to this is the lack of humanitarian funding for Sudan. Admittedly, all the lights are red.
Admittedly, we are witnessing an increase in crises, but we have to find a way to manage Ukraine, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan at the same time. The solution to the conflict must be political, the humanitarians are not going to solve all the problems, but in the meantime they are doing what they can. Faced with the emergency, we have no other option than to make our operations long-term and this requires greater mobilization, particularly on the part of the States.
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