As Sudan’s conflict heads toward its fifth month, a dire humanitarian crisis looms with thousands of people, many of them residents of the capital Khartoum, facing the prospect of death by starvation and malnutrition.
The tragic passing of Khaled Senhouri, a well-known violinist, who recently succumbed to hunger in Omdurman, highlighted the predicament of civilians for whom lack of food and water can be just as deadly as bullets.
With intermittent electricity, dwindling food supplies, and limited access to essential resources, Sudanese in Khartoum and other violence-torn towns and cities are locked in a desperate fight for survival.
In a heart-wrenching online post shortly before his death, Senhouri described the reality of life under siege. Unable to leave home to procure food because of the fighting, his was a despair now shared by countless others.
Since the outbreak of violence in Khartoum on April 15 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces, the nation’s food imports and domestic agriculture have faced severe disruptions, leaving supermarket shelves bare.
Most markets, shops, and petrol stations are closed, and even basic commodities like cooking gas are scarce and exorbitantly priced on the black market.
In the face of such scarcity, the price of essential items has skyrocketed, with the cost of lamb reaching a staggering $91 per kilogram. Poultry meat is almost nonexistent, while fruit and vegetables are disappearing from the market.
Tomatoes, cucumbers, and other fresh ingredients now cost a fortune, leaving families with no choice but to endure hunger and malnutrition.
The UN says 25 million people – more than half Sudan’s population – need food and 13.6 million children are in desperate need of humanitarian aid.
More than 19 million people, which accounts for 40 percent of the population, are already experiencing hunger. The World Food Programme says it has reached more than 1.4 million people with emergency food aid as needs intensify.
Fighting in the capital – three cities built around the confluence of the White and Blue Niles, Khartoum, Omdurman and Bahri – has heavily affected areas housing important state or military installations.
The Darfur region, already ravaged by brutal conflict in the early 2000s, has seen some of the worst of the violence. Fighting there has recently concentrated around Nyala, after clashes in El-Geneina where the UN had reported atrocities.
A series of ceasefires brokered by Saudi Arabia and the US in indirect negotiations in the early stages of the conflict have gone ignored or not fully respected by the dueling factions.
As a result, many Sudanese workers have gone unpaid for four consecutive months. The collapse of the banking system and the lack of cash liquidity due to the conflict have left families burdened with debts and unable to meet their basic needs.
The health sector is also grappling with immense challenges. Attacks on health workers have put the few remaining hospitals in Khartoum at risk. The scarcity of medicines and difficulty in accessing treatment have further aggravated the crisis.
The International Rescue Committee warns that the country is hurtling toward a man-made food crisis, which could grow worse in the coming year if global food price inflation continues on its current trajectory.
Farmers in several states across Sudan say the conflict is disrupting the production of staple crops like sorghum and millet, which aid agencies say could drive the nation deeper into hunger and poverty.
Even though many agricultural areas in Sudan are relatively calm and not directly affected by the fighting, delays have been caused by factors such as a lack of credit.
Banks have been looted in Khartoum and supply chains have faced disruption, impacting the availability of crucial agricultural resources like fertilizers, seeds, and fuel. Several warehouses storing these inputs have also been plundered.
Sally Beth Anyanga is a versatile Communications Specialist with 7+ years’ experience working for non-profit and corporate organizations with a proven history of developing effective media communications, helping to establish strong internal communications policies, and developing helpful crisis management procedures. Sally is currently serving as the East Africa Regional communications officer for the International Rescue Committee. Capital caught up with her to talk about the dire situation in Sudan. Excerpts;
Capital: The International Rescue Committee (IRC) warns that the ongoing fighting in Sudan that has displaced almost one million people and will continue to rise if the fighting does not end. How are you planning to cope with this?
Sally Beth Anyanga: Following intense violence in Sudan, there is an acute shortage of food, water, medicine and fuel and limited access to electricity and communications.
In addition to its ongoing health, nutrition and women empowerment activities, the IRC is providing displaced people in Tunaydbah (Gedaref) and Blue Nile with basic items to help meet their immediate needs.
In Chad, the IRC has been providing drinking water to people who have arrived severely dehydrated and has set up a mobile health clinic to attend to the vast health needs of the arriving population.
IRC will continue to scale up WASH (including hygiene and sanitation), health and protection support in the coming days.
Capital: Issues such as economic instability, a lack of basic services, and ongoing violence continue to impact the country. What do you think will be the solution for Sudan?
Sally: Funding: response in Sudan is very underfunded despite unprecedented humanitarian needs. Donors will need to provide significant additional funding to address new needs as well as support the likely increased operational costs.
In addition, Donors will be required to provide flexible funding to partners to allow them to adapt to a very fluid situation, new emergency needs (e.g., from those in Khartoum), address operational challenges (e.g. use of Hawalas) and support local community groups already working in Sudan.
Safety and Security: There needs to be significant investment in security information sharing and analysis. The Humanitarian Country Team and leadership should proactively support organizations to establish a presence in Sudan and provide support to the NGO and wider humanitarian community. At the State Level INGOs must be involved in scenario and contingency planning to ensure that the requirements of INGOs shape potential evacuation plans.
Bureaucratic Impediments: The operational space for NGOs has been shrinking as they have faced increasing restrictions. The complexity of the ongoing crises in Sudan will require greater operational flexibility and a removal of administrative obstacles. Requirements such as travel notifications, involvement of government authorities in recruitment of national staff should be removed by local and national authorities.
Banking System: The functionality of the banking system in Sudan has been significantly impacted by the current crisis. Banks have been closed. As a result, thousands of people have been unable to access their income. The Cash Working Group should be supported to conduct a mapping of functional financial service providers and provide technical guidance to inform standardisation in the approach to using informal financial service providers (e.g. Hawalas).
Information Management: Significant additional investment in information management will be required. Current estimates on numbers of displaced persons risks under-estimating the scale of new displacement as many of those displaced from Khartoum are hosted by extended family, host community and rented accommodation. Accurate estimates are essential to facilitate humanitarian planning.
Capital: Sudan is also facing a refugee crisis, with over 1 million refugees from neighboring South Sudan seeking safety in the country. Additionally, the country is dealing with the effects of climate change, including devastating floods that have displaced thousands of people. How is the IRC dealing with this?
Sally: The IRC has a main office in Khartoum with three field offices in El-Gadarif, Blue Nile and South Kordofan states.
In Sudan, the IRC supports people impacted by conflict and crisis, including women, children, the elderly, persons with disabilities, refugees, mixed populations, and host communities.
We provide an integrated health, nutrition and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) program that maintains basic service provision while actively working to increase local capacity to sustain the service provision.
The IRC also provides child protection services and comprehensive women and girls’ protection and empowerment services including gender-based violence (GBV) survivors.
Capital: In Darfur, a region in western Sudan, violence and displacement have been ongoing for many years. In recent years, fighting has also occurred in other parts of the country, including the Blue Nile and South Kordofan states. These conflicts have resulted in significant displacement and humanitarian needs. What have you done so far on these fronts?
Sally: Currently we are responding to the influx of refugees at the border by providing clean water, health and protection in 5 villages with about 30,000 people in the provinces bordering Darfur.
Capital: Do you think the conflict in Sudan will spill to the neighbouring countries?
Sally: The conflict has led to the displacement of thousands of people who have already crossed borders to other countries. up to 70,000 people have been estimated to have arrived over the border from Sudan into Chad since last weekend.
Capital: East Africa is home to some of the IRC’s longest-running programs globally. Can you tell us your works?
Sally: The International Rescue Committee (IRC) helps people whose lives have been shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and rebuild.
Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, we now work in over 40 crisis affected countries as well as communities throughout Europe and the Americas.
We deliver lasting impact by providing health care, helping children learn, and empowering individuals and communities to become self-reliant, always with a focus on the unique needs of women and girls.
