Hello, everyone. Good morning, afternoon or evening, and welcome to this edition of Elsewhere in Focus. You can find all the articles in the series here (along with my other diaries).
It has been a while since I covered the civil war in Sudan. But the violence and suffering continues, exacerbated by the lack of will or interest among the global powers to do anything about it. I had introduced you to the conflict a couple of months back and we had looked at how the year in conflict had affected Sudanese, especially Sudanese sharing updates on the conflict with the world, when the one-year anniversary came around in April. In a third piece, we had read about the ethnic cleansing in Darfur. Today, we will get an update on Sudan and then go further into the status of refugees from Sudan.
Trigger warning: Mentions of sexual assault.
All right then. Onward, we go.
Sudan: Violence, Famine and Denial of Refuge
Violence Continues Unabated
If you have been following the twitter updates I share in the comments of the series, you will have seen that RSF and SAF attacks against the Sudanese continue apace with famine and other forms of violence. The latest flash update is available at UNOCHA. What the OCHA does not directly detail is gendered violence. There are other avenues reporting on that.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) released a report on sexual violence and conflict in Sudan in June (18 Jun 2024). It gives you a glimpse of the scale of disaster facing Sudanese women and girls.
DARFUR/KHARTOUM, Sudan – Aisha* lost both her parents last year, aged just 17. “I was left alone at home. I couldn’t reach out to any of my relatives because the situation was extremely tense,” she told UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency.
“Then an armed militia took over my neighbourhood [in Khartoum], turning it into a stronghold and restricting all movement.”
The conflict in Sudan has ground on for over a year and spiralled into a humanitarian catastrophe. Estimates are that up to 12 million people have fled their homes, 2 million of them to unstable neighbouring countries, and famine is looming in multiple areas. Reports have soared of appalling sexual violence, wielded as a weapon to terrorize communities and exert control.
Aisha only left her house for essential supplies and food. “Although the soldiers saw me moving around, they did not harass or harm me at first.”
“One day, two soldiers came to check who was still in the area. They knocked on my door and asked if anyone else was in the house. Terrified, I told them I was alone. They seemed to be searching for fighters and left.”
But they would later return – this time without knocking. “They came in and pointed a gun at me. They told me not to scream or say anything – then they began to take off my clothes. One soldier held the gun while the other raped me, and then they took turns.”
A flight to safety
The horror didn’t end there for Aisha.
“The next day, they came back with two more soldiers and repeated the assault.” They would not leave Aisha’s home for four days. When they finally left, she escaped to a friend’s house. “My friends were preparing to leave – I didn't tell them what had happened to me, and we travelled together to Kassala State.”
Across the world, sexual violence in conflicts has surged to record levels. Yet reported attacks are only a fraction of the real number, as many survivors don’t come forward for fear of facing stigma, retribution or being revictimized. Often there is nowhere to report the crimes, as protection mechanisms and the health system have all but broken down.
There are UN agencies on the ground trying to help but their reach is limited. Just look at the scale.
An estimated 6.7 million people are at risk of gender-based violence in Sudan, with displaced, refugee and migrant women and girls particularly vulnerable. Most health centres in conflict-affected areas have been destroyed, looted or are struggling to function as staff are displaced and medicines and supplies are running out.
Over the past year, UNFPA reached more than 600,000 people with gender-based violence response services and supported 112,000 people to access medical and sexual and reproductive health services – but much more is needed as the crisis deepens by the day.
Famine and Hunger in Place
As the ancients know, famine and pestilence are the companions of war, bringing death to the doors of the innocence. As every other war torn place, so in Sudan.
Many people have been raising alarm for a whole now. Julian Borger reported on the commentary for the Guardian a few days back (30 Jun 2024).
Sudan is facing horror “beyond imagination”, the outgoing UN aid chief has warned, with 750,000 people under imminent threat of famine and with conditions in danger of worsening even further.
The British diplomat Martin Griffiths will retire from his job as the UN’s undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs at a time when famine on a historic scale is looming over Sudan and Gaza.
Griffiths told the Guardian that while Gaza is the subject of intense media coverage and diplomatic effort (albeit unsuccessful so far), another – potentially much larger – human-made tragedy is unfolding in Sudan, largely out of the world’s sight, and with little sign of diplomatic progress.
Statistics published on Tuesday by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) showed that 495,000 Palestinians in Gaza face catastrophic conditions, defined as an “extreme lack of food, starvation, and exhaustion of coping capacities”, over the coming six months.
Over the same period, the panel of experts estimated that 755,262 people in Sudan face the same “phase 5” catastrophic conditions, while a further 8.5 million Sudanese face a “phase 4” emergency, defined as a state where “acute malnutrition and disease levels are excessively high, and the risk of hunger-related death is rapidly increasing”.
“These are staggering numbers. It’s beyond imagination,” said Griffiths, a British diplomat. “I think historically it is a huge moment.”
The UNOCHA had snapshot of the crisis too (27 Jun 2024).
Fourteen months into the conflict, Sudan is facing the worst levels of acute food insecurity ever recorded by the IPC in the country. Over half of the population (25.6M people) face Crisis or worse conditions (IPC Phase 3 or above) between June and September 2024, coinciding with the lean season. This includes 755,000 people in Catastrophe (IPC Phase 5) in 10 states including Greater Darfur (all five states), South and North Kordofan, Blue Nile, Al Jazirah, and Khartoum. Another 8.5M people (18 percent of the population) face Emergency (IPC Phase 4).
There is a risk of Famine in 14 areas (five localities and nine clusters of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and refugees, in Greater Darfur, Greater Kordofan, Al Jazirah states and some hotspots in Khartoum), if the conflict escalates further, including through increased mobilization of local militias. This would contribute to the ongoing restrictions on humanitarian access to the besieged population in critical areas and restrict people’s ability to engage in farming and casual labour activities during the upcoming agricultural season.
This latest IPC analysis marks a stark and rapid deterioration of the food security situation compared to the previous IPC update published in December 2023. Six months later, the number of people facing high levels of acute food insecurity has increased by 45 percent (from 17.7M to 25.6M), including a 74 percent increase (+3.6M) in IPC Phase 4, while the population in Catastrophe (IPC Phase 5) has surged from zero to 755,000 in the period June - September 2024. Compared to the same time last year (June 2023), the number of people classified in IPC Phase 3 or above has increased by over 50 percent (+8.7M).
While in the harvest season (October 2024 – February 2025), the conditions of some households are expected to slightly improve due to food availability from local production and partial stabilization of food prices, a very high number of people (21.1M) are expected to continue facing high acute food insecurity, with around 6.4M in Emergency (IPC Phase 4) and nearly 109,000 people in Catastrophe (IPC Phase 5). During this period, seven areas are expected to face a risk of Famine.
That is where we are. Millions suffering and the rest of the world doing nothing. Demonstrated by the funding available for meeting the humanitarian needs for Sudan as per the UNOCHA: 17.89% of the required amount.
Is it any wonder that they leave Sudan looking for a violence free land?
And yet, when they cross borders, taking immense risks, they are pushed back or violated.
And a Denial of Refuge
Where is refuge in the land of the persecuted?
Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia are facing violent attacks and conflict because of the ongoing ethnic violence there. The Ethiopian authorities have been denying charges of violence and discrimination though around six thousand refugees left a camp and ran away to a forest because they had no other choice. Dabanga reports on a statement released by No to Women’s Oppression Initiative in Ethiopia asking for support (24 Jun 2024).
The No to Women’s Oppression initiative has launched an urgent humanitarian appeal to the international community to resolve the crisis of Sudanese refugees stranded in the Kumer and Ulala camps in the forests of Ethiopia, while Sudanese refugees in Uganda’s Kiryandongo camp called for improved living conditions and support from Tagadom.
In a statement published yesterday, the initiative called on the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and Ethiopian authorities to evacuate all refugees to safe camps and provide them with essential resources.
The statement documented testimonies from activists in the camps, confirming that refugees had died due to a lack of medical care. “Forty-three births were performed using a razor and nylon bags, with wounds stitched using regular thread after boiling it.” Additionally, four cases of paralysis occurred among refugees due to incorrect drug injections, and there is no oxygen or nebuliser to assist with breathing, leading to instant deaths.
The number of stranded Sudanese in Ethiopia is estimated by No to Women’s Oppression at 6,248 people, including 2,133 children, 76 people with disabilities, and 1,196 sick people.
In August of last year, an estimated 6,000 Sudanese refugees participated in demonstrations at Ulala camp over the lack of food and medicine provided to them. They also demanded protection from attacks by local militiamen.
They also report a lack of support in Uganda.
Sudanese refugees in the Kiryandongo camp in Uganda have called on the Civic Democratic Forces alliance (Tagadom) to provide them with survival means, enhance safety measures, and offer psychological support at the camp.
They highlighted the lack of food aid, which has led to malnutrition, the scarcity of basic health services, and the lack of clean drinking water. The camp has only one school, which serves students of different nationalities, increasing the strain on resources.
Augustine Passilly has more on the story of 6000+ Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia in the New Humanitarian (27 Jun 2024).
After escaping the war in Sudan, several thousand refugees had been living in camps allocated to them in the Amhara region by Ethiopian authorities. But the refugees escaped to a forest in May after attacks, abductions, and rapes in the camps.
Mohamed Hamid, a refugee who is stuck in the forest, said the group has been contending with hyenas and other dangerous wildlife over the past few weeks, and is experiencing humanitarian conditions that “no human being would accept”.
Hamid, who worked for the UN in Sudan, said the refugees are demanding to be relocated to another country, or to be given support to return to Sudan, even as the conflict there has displaced some 10 million people and led to famine conditions.
Lucrezia Vittori, associate communications officer in Ethiopia for the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) said her organisation is urging refugees to return to the camps so they can access food and water aid while a long-term solution is figured out.
Vittori said a safer site in Amhara, near the town of Gendewuha, has already been identified, but that the timeline for opening it depends on financial resources, the current rainy season, and the security situation.
Hamid said he is sceptical of the plan and feels like refugees are “being held hostage”. “This [new] camp is also located in the Amhara region,” he said. “Local people advised us against accepting. They told us that we would continue to be killed there.”
Rebellion broke out in Amhara last year, when a militia called Fano began fighting Ethiopia’s federal government. The militia had supported the government’s war in the Tigray region but felt betrayed by a 2022 peace deal and a crackdown against its fighters.
Some reports blame Fano for the abuses against Sudanese, though refugees who spoke to The New Humanitarian described assailants simply as “militiamen from the mountains” or as armed residents of villages near the camps, which are called Awlala and Kumer.
Some armed villagers were assigned by the government to protect the Awlala camp, and were the source of much of the trouble there, according to refugees interviewed by The New Humanitarian.
The violence in Ethiopia is mostly a result of the authoritarian tendencies of the Ethiopian regime aided and abetted by Eritrea. Be that as it may, it is no surprise that the government that is making its own people refugees have not much concern for refugees from other countries. Especially when the international community—especially the powerful among them—couldn’t care less.
Where is refuge in the land of Racists and Authoritarians?
If Ethiopia is busy offloading responsibilities of refugees, Egypt is exploiting them and expelling those who cannot pay. The Amnesty International released a statement on the deportation (19 June 2024).
For decades, Egypt was home to millions of Sudanese people studying, working, investing or receiving healthcare in the country, with Sudanese women and girls, as well as boys under 16, and men over 49 exempt from entry requirements. Around 500,000 Sudanese refugees are estimated to have fled to Egypt after the armed conflict erupted in Sudan in April 2023. However, in the following month, the Egyptian government introduced a visa entry requirement for all Sudanese nationals, leaving those fleeing with little choice but to escape through irregular border crossings.
The report documents in detail the ordeals of 27 Sudanese refugees who were arbitrarily arrested with about 260 others between October 2023 and March 2024 by Egypt’s Border Guard Forces operating under the Ministry of Defence, as well as police operating under the Ministry of Interior. It further documents how the authorities forcibly returned an estimated 800 Sudanese detainees between January and March 2024 who were all denied the possibility to claim asylum, including by accessing UNHCR, or to challenge deportation decisions.
Egypt demands thousands of dollars from the refugees (Palestinians as well), and those unable to pay are being deported back to Sudan: a crime called defoulement. The European Union, the care takers of humanitarian values after the great United States (defender of democracy and rules-based order), is paying Egypt money which is invested in ensuring the refugees are sent back to Sudan.
God forbid they make their way to Europe.
The spike in mass arrests and expulsions came after a prime ministerial decree issued in August 2023 requiring foreign nationals in Egypt to regularize their status. This was accompanied by a rise in xenophobic and racist sentiments both online and in the media as well as statements by government officials criticizing the economic “burden” of hosting “millions” of refugees.
It has also taken place against the backdrop of increased EU cooperation with Egypt on migration and border control, despite the country’s grim human rights record and well-documented abuses against migrants and refugees.
In October 2022, the EU and Egypt signed an €80 million cooperation agreement, which included building up the capacity of Egyptian Border Guard Forces to curb irregular migration and human trafficking across Egypt’s border. The agreement purports to apply “rights-based, protection oriented and gender sensitive approaches”. Yet, Amnesty International’s new report documents the involvement of the Border Guard Forces in violations against Sudanese refugees.
A further aid and investment package, under which migration is a key pillar, was agreed in March 2024 as part of the newly announced strategic and comprehensive partnership between the EU and Egypt.
“By cooperating with Egypt in the migration field without rigorous human rights safeguards, the EU risks complicity in Egypt’s human rights violations. The EU must press Egyptian authorities to adopt concrete measures to protect refugees and migrants,” said Sara Hashash.
“The EU must also carry out rigorous human rights risk assessments before implementing any migration cooperation and put in place independent monitoring mechanisms with clear human rights benchmarks. Cooperation must be halted or suspended immediately if there are risks or reports of abuses.”
EU may claim ignorance but it is not ignorance. They have a similar agreement with Tunisia too, resulting in African refugees being attacked violently in the country.
See, neither the EU nor their descendants in other lands want refugees or economic migrants coming to their places and trying to make a comfortable life. That is about it. They want the resources and the people, the market, but not the responsibilities and obligations that come with it.
If you don’t believe it, try and find if any country has relaxed the rules of asylum for Sudanese refugees.
Canada brought in a new law that allows Sudanese Canadians and those with PR in Canada to sponsor family members in Sudan (of any nationality) provided they are willing to support those family members. But there are no specific expansion of visas or easing of rules for Sudanese refugees in general. Oh, and they seem to have stopped accepting applications for even the family members as per the Canadian immigration government website. So, that is that.
I couldn’t find anything for US though Sudan is in the Temporary Protected status like Haiti.
What Can You Do?
If you want to help, pushing for easing immigration policy in your country for any sort of immigrant starting with refugees would be the first step. But of course, everywhere, immigration policy is going in the opposite direction. And it appears political parties, be it Democrats or Labour or the left are happy to just give in.
Don’t let that be the last word.
I am taking a break from both of my series starting next week. I will be back with a piece on August 21.
Until then, everyone. Stay safe. Be well. Take care.
Together, may we build a world without borders.