It is an extremely tragic aspect of the world today that amidst all the supposed progress of science and technology, amidst all the increase of billionaires and their wealth, the life of several hundred million people has been reduced to almost intolerable levels as they are distressed by the loss of near and dear ones suddenly in conflicts, and at the same time themselves suffer from injuries, disease, violent attacks, extreme hunger, deprivation and adverse weather conditions.
Two countries that have suffered acutely from such conditions in recent times are Sudan and South Sudan.
Sudan today faces one of the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today, accentuated greatly in the course of the ongoing conflict since April 2023.
About 10 million people are displaced, out of a total population of about 48 million. Most of them are entirely innocent children and women. Women are also exposed to increased sexual violence. Small children caught up in the violence suffer from the most painful injuries apart from being excessively exposed to malnutrition, at a time when the health and medical infrastructure is in ruins. Nearly 60 per cent of the people need humanitarian assistance but continuing violence makes it more difficult to take food and other basic essentials to them even when these are available. The funds required for humanitarian assistance are seriously short of real needs, less than a third of what is needed is available. So serious is the situation that people, including a large number of children and women, have even escaped to those neighboring countries, such a Chad, South Sudan and Ethiopia, which have a serious humanitarian crisis of their own. In the prevailing breakdown of governance, even credible estimates of the number of people who have died in the violence are not available, a middle estimate may be around 40,000 dying directly in the violence of the conflict while about four times this number many have perished due to indirect impacts of the conflict including hunger and famine, disease and lack of basic essential facilities. Those fleeing hunger and conflict are supposed to get relief when they finally reach relief camps, but acute hunger is also being reported from some of the camps.
Of course all these serious problems have not risen only during the last 16 months of the latest conflict which started in April 2023 as serious problems requiring humanitarian help existed even at that time, but these were seriously and rapidly aggravated as a result of the new conflict. The new civil war was in fact the last thing the country ravaged by an earlier civil war and other conflicts needed.
The latest wave of violence in Sudan, in the form of two generals leading the army and para-military forces in a highly destructive, completely avoidable and non-rational clash (which has already involved warplanes dropping bombs and heavy anti-aircraft firing), has quickly led to a large number of deaths and displacements .
The clash of Sudanese Armed Forces or SAF and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is also seen as a clash between the regular army and para-military forces which grew out of forces raised to suppress a rebellion in the Darfur region. These forces known as the Janjavid were earlier condemned widely for their cruel suppression of a revolt, sometimes acting along ethnic lines. The Darfur rebellion and repression is reported to have led to about 300,000 deaths and displacement of about 2 million people, during 2003-07 or so.
At present nearly two-third of the population (numbering about 28 million people out of 48 million) needs urgent help to protect from hunger and famine.
Earlier in its Hunger Hot Spots report The WFP (World Food Program, along with the FAO) had stated in late 2022 that between June and September 2022 nearly 11.7 million people in Sudan were likely to have been in crisis situation of food insecurity. For any military generals to push their country into a new civil war in such conditions defies all logic and rationality as well as humanitarian considerations. The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres gave voice to the strong feelings of many people when he stated that no one has the right to go on fighting when the country is falling apart.
In fact the country fell apart even earlier in 2011 with the secession of a significant part containing about 75% of the oil deposits of the country to emerge as the new nation of South Sudan. A lot of efforts had gone into this agreement, but violence has continued to rage in both countries since then. In terms of the per cent of people who have perished from hunger and violence, the situation in South Sudan is no better. The Hunger Hot Spot Report stated in 2022 that 7.7 million people in South Sudan, out of a total population of 11.5 million, or nearly two-thirds, were in a food insecurity crisis while 2.9 million were in an emergency situation. This was the situation in a country which has a lot of oil wealth. More recent estimates say that nearly 90 per cent of the people here may be in need of humanitarian assistance.
In fact both Sudan and South Sudan are rich in mineral wealth. In ancient times the region saw several flourishing civilizations, but later factors like foreign and colonial rule and the slave trade became major impediments in the progress of the country. Spread of sectarian ideas relating to this added to this and became the cause of several major problems.
Despite this, more recent times have also witnessed periods recorded as those of high growth, significantly due to exploitation of oil wealth. A lot of this was also used to import weapons, and a lot of trading oil with weapons was done with China too. Other major countries’ concerns were also frequently dominated by narrow business and strategic considerations, which frequently involved befriending the more aggressive and dominant forces and fueling conflicts by taking sides and supplying weapons, while the role of an agency working with continuity and commitment for peace was badly missed.
The region has more than enough resources to feed well all of its people and end other deprivations as well, but the grim reality of recent years has been that of one of the highest percentages of people being affected by hunger and deprivation, by displacement and human rights violations. One of the worst affected regions is the Darfur region, where things have deteriorated further in recent days, as conflicts in and around the regional capital of El Fasher drove many famished people to East Darfur in oppressively hot weather.
On the other hand in South Sudan very disastrous floods have been adding to the distress of people, testifying to the many sided adverse impacts of climate change.
The UN secretary general has called for African led mediation and other efforts to bring peace as early as possible. While this is really needed, more durable efforts for peace will also be needed in a region that has been torn apart so badly by many-sided violence in recent decades. What is needed is not just fire-fighting when violence has erupted, but significant, big efforts with continuity even in normal times to resolve issues, remove suspicions and strengthen the forces of peace at many levels. It is only when forces of peace get such a significant and continuing presence that peace will get a real chance in such regions ravaged so badly by conflict and violence.
The kind of conflicts that have devastated this region could have been controlled at a much earlier stage by the United Nations, and it is really sad that this could not be achieved. The overall dispute resolving mechanisms of the United Nations need to be strengthened much more and improved in various significant ways so that it does not remain a helpless spectator to the rapid aggravation of even those conflicts which are relatively easier to resolve.
Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Planet in Peril, A Day in 2071, Man over Machine and Protecting Earth for Children.
