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Over half of Sudan’s population said to be facing acute hunger amid brutal civil war
Thousands of refugees have have fled to camps in Kassala in eastern Sudan. (Credit: MERCY CORPS)
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JOHANNESBURG – In what is described by some as electioneering and a last-minute attempt to leave a legacy, some observers say President Biden and his administration’s officials are making renewed efforts at trying to end “the largest humanitarian and displacement crisis in the world today,” the war in Sudan.
With the United Nations reporting some 25 million in desperate need of aid, and up to 150,000 said to have been killed since fighting broke out last year, and now agencies, including Health Policy Watch reporting that “over half of Sudan’s citizens face acute hunger,” some analysts say it’s a classic case of too little, too late.
“The Administration is making an 11th hour attempt to put the situation on a better footing, not least because the humanitarian situation is so desperate,” Cameron Hudson told Fox News Digital. Hudson, former director for African affairs at the National Security Council during the George W. Bush administration, and now senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, added, “There could be 2 million Sudanese dead from famine by the time he (Biden) leaves office.”
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Members of the Sudanese army hold a parade in Karima city on May 19, 2024. (AFP via Getty Images)
“Biden’s promises to Africa about elevating its importance on the global stage will ring even more hollow if he does not quickly take meaningful action to address this calamitous situation before he departs office,” Hudson stated.
Each of the 11 million Sudanese said by the U.N. to have been ripped from their homes – in diplomatic speak, to have been displaced – has their own horror story.
Katie Striffolino, director of policy and advocacy for Mercy Corps, told Fox News Digital, “I met a mother who had given birth while she was being displaced in the back of a pickup truck with no medical care. She was with her newborn in an informal displacement site with no food or water. She was unable to breastfeed her infant who was visibly hungry because she didn’t have enough nutrition to produce breastmilk.”
Mercy Corps is a global aid agency working in nine of Sudan’s 18 states, but Striffolino added that often aid workers are forced to stand by and watch empty-handed, as aid often can’t get through. “We can physically reach these people – and they are still starving to death. This indicates massive aid blockages that are manmade.”
The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who have been fighting the government’s Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) for 18 months, have been accused of blocking or diverting much of the aid coming into the country.
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Hundreds of people line up to register for a potential food aid delivery at the Agiri internal displacement camp, in April 2023. (© Guy Peterson for Mercy Corps)
An example of this comes from aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), which reported from North Darfur’s Zamzam camp that it “is under a blockade, with no essential supplies or food reaching its residents.” Zamzam is home to between 300,000 to 500,000 displaced people.
Sudan researcher Eric Reeves told Fox News Digital, “The people of Zamzam camp are desperate to see the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and their allied Arab militias defeated, thereby creating security conditions that would allow humanitarian convoys to reach them. Children are starving to death now; malnourished mothers have stopped lactating and are much more vulnerable. Older people are also dying from malnutrition and disease.”
Last month, while addressing the U.N. General Assembly, President Biden warned “stop blocking aid to the Sudanese people,” adding, “The world needs to stop arming the generals, to speak with one voice and tell them: Stop tearing your country apart. End this war now.”
Vice President Kamala Harris echoed Biden’s words in a statement on X, where she also called for an end to the conflict, noting in part, “We stand with the Sudanese people and their right to a peaceful future.”
But the CSIS’s Hudson claims that though these were strong words, Biden had been silent publicly on Sudan for well over a year. He told Fox News Digital “that plea came more than 15 months after the last time he referenced the conflict publicly, hardly a demonstration of consistent engagement with the world’s largest conflict.”
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A crowd of people wait to receive food cards at the Agiri internal displacement camp, one of the first camps to open in the Nuba Mountains. June 2024. (© Guy Peterson for Mercy Corps)
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken taped a video message late last week for the people of Sudan, in which he said, “The whole world has been united in calling for an end to this conflict, and insisting on a negotiated solution. “
“Our support for the Sudanese people is steadfast, as they work to demand an end to conflict and develop a process to resume the stalled political transition,” a State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “We continue to reiterate that there is no military solution to the crisis in Sudan. We continue to be deeply concerned about the ongoing fighting in Khartoum, El Fasher, and elsewhere between the RSF and the SAF, which continues to kill civilians and destroy civilian infrastructure.
“The United States and our regional and international partners are unified in calling for the parties to immediately end fighting in Sudan and for the SAF and RSF to adhere to their obligations under international humanitarian law and respect human rights… and allow unhindered cross-border and cross-line humanitarian access to meet the emergency needs of civilians.”
Sudan refugees say attacks leave thousands stranded in Ethiopian forest. People sit by makeshift shelters near Awlala Camp, Amhara region, Ethiopia, May 31, 2024. (Alfatih Alsemari/Handout via Reuters)
The spokesperson concluded, “The United States continues to be the largest donor of humanitarian aid to the Sudan response, providing more than $2 billion in humanitarian assistance, including protection, food aid, and other lifesaving support, since the start of Fiscal Year 2023 for needs in Sudan and neighboring countries.”
But with the U.S. clearly still pushing peace talks, which have yet to be effective, Hudson referred to the warring combatants in Sudan and told Fox News Digital, “It is clear that neither side has any interest in political talks right now, as much as we want to have them. The administration would be wise to focus its efforts on increasing humanitarian access and saving as many lives as possible before it leaves office, rather than devoting its precious little attention to talks that are not likely to amount to genuine change on the ground.”
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Mercy Corps’ Striffolino added there’s a risk of hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths in Sudan: “Children are starving, and they do not have the privilege to wait for the international community to act.”
She continued, “People in Sudan are being starved to death, and it’s entirely preventable. Conflict parties must stop attacking aid workers, civilians, and vital infrastructure, and allow humanitarian staff to deliver lifesaving aid across the country.”
In Sudan now, there are also widespread disease outbreaks, including cholera, malaria, dengue fever, measles and rubella. The U.N.’s children’s agency UNICEF states that 3.4 million children under the age of 5 are at high risk from epidemic diseases.
A man walks by a house hit in recent fighting in Khartoum, Sudan, April 25, 2023.
Hudson added, “It’s never too late to have an impact. There are a number of things Biden should do before he leaves office to prevent the parties (in Sudan) from rehabilitating their images so that they can reinvent themselves as legitimate political figures. That means supporting an International Criminal Court (ICC) indictment and sanctioning the leadership of both organizations. These moves would hang around their necks well after Biden is gone.”
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It’s been nearly two years since Biden stood smiling and making promises with African leaders at a Washington summit to re-engage with the continent, and elevate the partnership between the administration and Africa.
But Hudson concludes, “Ultimately, it is less the Biden administration’s policies toward Africa that will be judged, than the gap between those policies and the expectations the administration set. But the problem with unmet expectations is that they sting more than promises never made. This may be the most important lesson Biden’s successor can apply to Africa.”
Paul Tilsley is a veteran correspondent who has reported on African affairs for more than three decades from Johannesburg, South Africa. He can be followed on Twitter @paultilsley