While the international community focuses on Israel’s war with Hamas and now Hezbollah, the Ukraine-Russia conflict and speculates about a possible struggle involving China and Taiwan, the world’s greatest humanitarian crisis is happening in Africa.
Many observers are calling Sudan the world’s “forgotten war.” As the humanitarian situation deteriorates, sorely needed aid is not arriving, signaling a historic failure in the global aid system.
The power struggle that began in April 2023 in Khartoum between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – is now marked by 10.7 million Sudanese displaced, more than half of them children. Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) estimates that every two hours a child dies of severe malnutrition in a displacement camp in Sudan’s North Darfur state.
More than 25.6 million people across ten states facing heightened risk of famine. Seventeen months into one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises ever, the internal conflict has spread across the country and is marked by widespread death, war crimes, recruitment of children as soldiers, rape and violence against women, disease, intentional destruction of the country’s food reserves, and now heavy rains causing flooding.
In a 24 September statement, the Atlantic Council reported on a 14 August delegation, including countries supporting the RSF, claiming to want to improve the humanitarian situation in Sudan met in Geneva. The Aligned for Advancing Lifesaving and Peace in Sudan (ALPS) Group, whose members included the United States, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the African Union (AU), and the United Nations, convened to develop immediate actions to alleviate the suffering of the Sudanese people.
The ALPS facilitated ten days of peace talks between the warring parties, the Council reported. The RSF attended the talks in person and the SAF attended virtually.
At the end of the negotiations, two access points for food, medicine, and humanitarian aid were opened – the Western border crossing into Darfur at Adre, Chad, and the Dabbah Road crossing, allowing access to the north and west from Port Sudan – a small step perhaps but a welcome one.