Smoke rises above buildings during clashes between the Sudan Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces in Khartoum, Sudan, May 1, 2023. © 2023 Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters |
Stay home and risk death or flee on a perilous journey to an uncertain future?
Many people in Sudan are once again faced with this impossible dilemma as a raging conflict claims lives and carves a path of destruction around them.
On April 15, fighting broke out in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, after the country’s two most powerful generals, who overthrew a transitional government in a 2021 coup, began battling for power. The country’s military, the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), an independent armed force, have since engaged in heavy fighting in Khartoum and elsewhere in Sudan. In West Darfur, ethnic militias have joined the fighting.
Hundreds of civilians have been killed and hundreds of thousands have fled their homes, sparking a humanitarian disaster. Human Rights Watch has documented how explosive weapons used in urban areas have killed civilians and destroyed property and issued a Q&A on how the laws of war apply to the ongoing conflict.
Amy Braunschweiger recently spoke with Human Rights Watch’s Sudan researcher, Mohamed Osman, about how people in Sudan are dealing with the conflict, and what needs to happen to keep civilians safe. Here are some excerpts from that interview: |
People are having to decide whether they stay home and risk getting bombed or looted or forcibly evicted, or flee facing risks created by the fighting on the road and the challenges of crossing borders. Many people are stranded where they are. The fighting has damaged civilian infrastructure, so there’s little access to electricity, clean water, and health care. |
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There’s no good reporting on the number of internally displaced people, because the fighting has dramatically curtailed the movement of humanitarian workers. At least five aid workers were killed early in the conflict and health facilities have been attacked.
Many people are still in Khartoum because they can’t afford to flee, have illnesses, can’t walk, or simply don’t want to leave their homes, so many families are facing the excruciating decision of having to leave relatives behind. |
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People carry suitcases in the Sudanese town of Wadi Halfa bordering Egypt on May 4, 2023. © 2023 AFP via Getty Images |
It’s difficult to get information in a timely manner. Communicating with people in Khartoum has been easier [than elsewhere], but recently internet networks keep crashing because telecommunications providers reported a shortage of electricity and fuel. Sometimes you talk to people who are on the move, other times you hear loud gunshots and explosions in the background. |
The world keeps telling Sudan’s people that it stands with them, but so far these are empty promises. The world has failed Sudan by appeasing its abusive leaders, and a convincing case needs to be made to Sudan’s generals that accountability is coming.
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