Millions displaced amid mounting crisis in Sudan

Aid organizations say an unprecedented humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Sudan and that more international support is needed to help the millions displaced by the violent conflict.

Fighting erupted seven months ago between Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) after the country's civilian government was toppled in a coup in 2021.

The battle initially began in Khartoum, the country's capital, but it quickly spread to the Sudanese states of North Darfur and West Darfur.

"The world needs to pay attention to Sudan," Mamadou Dian Balde, East Africa regional director for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, told Matt Galloway of The Current on Tuesday.

"There are other crises happening, but this is one of the largest."

The United Nations estimates that up to 9,000 people have been killed since April, while many more have been forced to flee their homes.

"It is a situation where you have five million people who have been displaced within Sudan and 1.2 million people who have crossed international borders and have gone into Chad," Balde said.

UN says ethnic violence has killed hundreds

The UN says hundreds of ethnic Masalit people were reportedly killed earlier this month in West Darfur by the RSF and their allied Arab militia.

"It is to some extent a repeat of what we saw 20 years ago," Balde said, referring to the widespread atrocities that took place in the Darfur region two decades ago.

Awad Ibrahim, a professor at the University of Ottawa, agrees and said the RSF are engaging in a campaign of ethnic cleansing, targeting non-Arab tribes like the Masalit and the Zaghawa.

"It's a continuation to what we already had [in] 2003," he said. "The base of the RSF is the Janjaweed."

The RSF evolved from Janjaweed militias that were used by the government of Sudan's ousted autocratic leader Omar al-Bashir to help quell a rebellion in the Darfur region in the early 2000s.

International Criminal Court prosecutors indicted al-Bashir on charges of genocide in 2010, and they accused Janjaweed commanders of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Ibrahim said what is happening today is equally horrific, if not worse.

"We have never witnessed such a thing before," he said. "This is an incredible, incredible level of not only inhumanity, but incivility and brutality."

The UN says that "between May and June, hundreds of Masalit men, women, and children — including the governor of West Darfur — were killed. Many were buried in mass graves while some bodies were left in the streets."

UN Humanitarian Affairs official Martin Griffiths:

Women and children caught in crossfire

According to a report released by Amnesty International in August, scores of women and girls as young as 12 have been abducted and subjected to sexual violence, including rape.

The humanitarian organization says that in "most of the cases of sexual violence documented by Amnesty International, the survivors identified RSF members or allied Arab militia as the perpetrators."

WATCH | Mass migration from Sudan to neighbouring countries:

On the front line of mass migration out of Sudan

2 years ago

Duration 7:36

Seven unrelenting weeks of fighting in Sudan have sent more than 350,000 people fleeing into neighbouring countries, including the world’s least-developed nation, South Sudan. CBC’s Chris Brown travels to the border between the two countries, where a humanitarian effort is struggling to cope with the huge surge in migration.

"If they do not physically and sexually abuse them, they will take them as hostages," Ibrahim said.

Elsadig Elnour, Islamic Relief's country director in Sudan, fled Khartoum with his family to Gedaref, a town in southeastern Sudan, after the fighting broke out in April.

"Honestly, the situation is unpredictable," he told Galloway on The Current on Tuesday. "No one can go out."

"Most of the shops [are] either looted or destroyed, so the supplies and all the essential materials are not there."

Elnour said many internally displaced people have returned to the capital out of desperation.

"They started to go back to Khartoum despite the active fighting there," he said. "What is going on in Darfur is more horrible than what happened 20 years back. Now people are killed and buried alive."

Aid could 'grind to a halt'

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the UN World Food Program (WFP) said food aid to 1.4 million people in Chad, including newly arrived refugees fleeing violence in Sudan's Darfur region, could "grind to a halt" because of a lack of funds.

"This forgotten crisis has metastasized as the world's eyes are on other emergencies," Pierre Honnorat, the WFP's country director in Chad, said in a statement.

"It is staggering, but more Darfuris have fled to Chad in the last six months than in the preceding 20 years."

The WFP said it urgently needs $185 million US to continue its work in the region. If not, food aid to 1.4 million people will cease in January.

LISTEN | Sudan crisis worsens as world's attention is elsewhere: 

The Current13:42Crisis in Sudan, as the world looks away

Refugees fleeing Sudan’s civil war have reported a surge in ethnically driven killings of civilians and a deepening humanitarian crisis — but aid workers say the world isn't paying attention.