Showing posts with label Adre. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Adre. Show all posts

Friday, March 29, 2024

UK CHANNEL 4 NEWS VIDEO FROM CHAD-SUDAN. UK doubles its aid to Sudan to £89m as crisis escalates

Report from Channel 4 News UK
By LINDSEY HILSUM
International Editor for Channel 4 News
Dated Thursday, 28 March 2024 - here is a copy in full:

War and hunger force hundreds of thousands to flee Sudan

The UK is almost doubling its aid to Sudan, to £89 million, as the humanitarian crisis there continues to escalate.


It’s almost a year since Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces turned on each other – plunging the country into war. Millions have been displaced and half the population is facing famine.


The new conflict also re-ignited the two-decade-long war in the Darfur region, with the RSF and allied Arab militia resuming their slaughter of the ethnic African Masalit tribe.


More than half a million people have fled to overcrowded camps in Chad, where food supplies are also dwindling.


CLICK HERE TO VIEW CHANNEL 4 NEWS VIDEO FROM CHAD-SUDAN.
















Channel 4 is a British public broadcast service.

Reporter: 

@lindseyhilsum

Producer: 

@Zahra_ZW

Camera: Soren Munk

7:52 PM · Mar 28, 2024


Source: https://www.channel4.com/news/war-and-hunger-force-hundreds-of-thousands-to-flee-sudan

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Related


Press release

From Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and

The Rt Hon Andrew Mitchell MP

Dated Thursday, 28 March 2024 - here is a copy in full:


UK to nearly double aid for Sudan as humanitarian crisis deepens


The UK announced more support for people in Sudan, including funding to UNICEF for emergency food assistance and support for survivors of gender-based violence.

  • UK support includes food and water for 500,000 children under 5 as Sudan’s humanitarian crisis grows
  • the funding boost comes as the UK’s Development and Africa Minister, Andrew Mitchell visits the Chad-Sudan border, witnessing the crisis first-hand
  • the UK again calls on the warring parties to commit to a lasting ceasefire and lift restrictions which are preventing aid reaching those who need it the most

The UK has today implemented additional support for people in Sudan, 1 year on from the start of the conflict.


This will include funding to UNICEF which will provide emergency and life-saving food assistance to support people particularly in hard-to reach areas in Sudan, including nutrition, water and hygiene services for 500,000 children under 5.  It will also support survivors of gender-based violence. The UK is committing an additional £4.95 million to provide 100,000 women and girls with a range of female genital mutilation, child marriage and gender-based violence prevention and response services.


The boost has been announced by the UK Minister for Development and Africa, Andrew Mitchell, during a 2-day visit to Chad where he visited a site for refugees driven over the border into Chad by the violence.  


In addition, the UK will be working with the World Food Programme to assist over 285,000 beneficiaries for 6 months by providing 13,405 tons of assorted food commodities.  These include cereals, pulses, oils and salt. 


It is part of a £89 million package the UK will deliver in Sudan in 2024 to 2025 – up from nearly £50 million in the current financial year.  


The  conflict in Sudan has caused more than 8 million people to flee their homes, with over 6 million displaced within Sudan itself. After almost a year of conflict, 25 million people in Sudan need assistance, and the country is on the verge of a catastrophic hunger crisis.  The UN has formally warned of the risk of famine in this year, with 18 million currently facing hunger in the country.


Minister for Development and Africa, Andrew Mitchell, said: 


The conflict in Sudan is devastating lives. Millions are displaced and facing catastrophic hunger conditions. There is growing evidence of atrocities against civilians.


The package announced today will help save lives. We have not forgotten the war in Sudan - nor must the world. The urgent priority is to end the violence.


Whilst in Chad, Minister Mitchell met with the President of the Transition, Mahamat Deby and Prime Minister Masra to underline UK support for peaceful, transparent and inclusive elections. They also discussed how the UK and Chad could work together towards peace in Sudan. 

Photo: Minister for Development and Africa Andrew Mitchell during his visit to Chad, meeting refugees fleeing from violence and hunger in Sudan.


Background

  • the UK calls on both sides to end the fighting, to abide by their responsibilities under International Humanitarian Law, to protect civilians and to grant immediate and unrestricted humanitarian access to allow the provision of, and access to, lifesaving assistance
  • the UK provided nearly £50 million in ODA funding for Sudan in 2023 to 2024 (including over £42 million in humanitarian assistance) *  for the next financial year (2024 to 2025), overall UK aid to Sudan will increase to £89 million. We have also been helping those fleeing to neighbouring countries as a result of the conflict in Sudan, providing £7.75 million in South Sudan including to support existing and new refugees, and £15 million to Chad over the last year
  • the conflict in Sudan began last April when violence erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Tensions between SAF General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti) had been escalating for months following disagreements on a transition to a civilian led government
  • the humanitarian crisis has been heighted by restrictions to humanitarian access and communications blackouts. More than 700,000 people have crossed from Sudan into eastern Chad, putting pressure on already vulnerable communities and stretched services
  • reports of conflict-related sexual violence are widespread cross Sudan. The conflict also risks setting back progress in the fight against female genital mutilation (FGM) and child marriage
  • throughout the conflict the UK aid-funded Sudan Free of FGM project has kept working to protect women and girls. The UK is providing an additional £4.95 million, which aims to support 100,000 additional women and girls with a range of female genital mutilation, child marriage and gender-based violence prevention and response services until March 2026.  This brings the total UK support to £19.95 million. The project has provided over 83,000 consultations for sexual and reproductive health services, helped over 100,000 people with mental health and psychosocial support, supported over 9,000 survivors of FGM, child marriage, and gender-based violence and protected over 11,700 children in child-friendly spaces
  • the UK aid-funded Sudan Free of FGM works with communities to alter social attitudes around FGM and child marriage, supports survivors of gender-based violence, and provides sexual and reproductive health care. It is delivered by UNICEF, the World Health Organisation, and the United Nations Population Fund
  • Sudan has one of the highest rates of female genital mutilation (FGM) in the world and is one of the few countries where child marriage remains legal. Nearly 9 in 10 women and girls aged 15 to 49 have undergone some form of FGM. 60% of girls are married before they turn 18

Media enquiries

Email newsdesk@fcdo.gov.uk

Telephone 020 7008 3100

Contact the FCDO Communication Team via email (monitored 24 hours a day) in the first instance, and we will respond as soon as possible.


Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-to-nearly-double-aid-for-sudan-as-humanitarian-crisis-deepens

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Sudan Watch - March 17, 2024

From Chatham House 

EXPERT COMMENT by Dame Rosalind Marsden March 14, 2024

'Sudan’s forgotten war: A new diplomatic push is needed'

Ali Karti, SG of Sudan’s Islamic Movement, widely seen as a mastermind of Sudan's war, has now announced a truce with RSF will never be accepted

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2024/03/ali-karti-sg-of-sudans-islamic-movement.html

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Troika statement on South Sudan Elections 2024

The Troika (Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States) have reaffirmed their call for peaceful elections in South Sudan. Updated: 20 March 2024

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END

Wednesday, March 20, 2024

Famine looms in Sudan war survivors tell of killings

NOTE from Sudan Watch Editor: The following report by the BBC is not balanced. It is mostly filled with graphic news of violence against males and sexual violence and rape against girls and women in Sudan. Not a word about justice or sexual violence and rape being carried out on boys and men. Why not? The report says sexual violence is a taboo topic in Sudan. It doesn't explain rape is rife in all wars not just in Sudan. "Famine looms in Sudan" says the title but the content does little to educate readers about the reasons for the looming famine and the lack of telecoms and internet connectivity, humanitarian aid and access for aid. The report says nothing new, uses cobbled together news from old reports and uses exploitative photos of vulnerable people. Shame on the BBC for allowing such shoddy reporting on Sudan where babies, children and adults are starving to death and famine looms. What does the BBC expect the readers of this report to learn, I wonder. At the end of the report I have selected and added details of the National Male Survivor Helpline and Online Service run by Safeline. 
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BBC News - 20 March 2024
Famine looms in Sudan as civil war survivors tell of killings and rapes
By Feras Kilani in Sudan & Mercy Juma in Chad
Additional reporting by Peter Ball and Mohamed Ibrahim, verification by Peter Mwai
WARNING: This article contains accounts of physical and sexual violence

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this story you can visit BBC Action Line.

National Male Survivor Helpline and Online Service run by Safeline, provides emotional support, advice and information for children and adults who identify as male affected by recent/historic sexual abuse.
Phone: 0808 800 5005
Text: 07860 065187
Webchat available via the website
Visit the Safeline website

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-68606201


END

Tuesday, January 16, 2024

Sudan: 500,000 Sudanese refugees in Chad in dire need of aid. Testimonies recount unspeakable horrors

“Testimonies recount unspeakable horrors - family members killed, women enduring heinous acts of abduction and sexual violence, and homes reduced to ashes. Despite the tireless efforts of humanitarian organisations and the welcoming gestures from the host communities and the government of Chad, the situation is close to catastrophic.” -Stephen Cornish, MSF Director General 

“They told us that this wasn’t our country and gave us two options: immediately leave for Chad or be killed. They took some men and I saw them shooting them in the streets, with no one to bury the corpses.” -H., A refugee who fled to Adre from El Geneina X


Source: Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) aka Doctors Without Borders

Statement by Stephen Cornish, MSF Director General 

Dated 22 December 2023 - here is a copy in full:


Half a million Sudanese refugees in Chad in dire need of humanitarian aid

This week, I visited the camps in eastern Chad to witness the living conditions of Sudanese refugees. 


I have worked as a humanitarian worker in countries across the globe, but what I saw in Chad in this emergency has shocked me to my core.


With such a rapid and vast displacement of people fleeing harrowing violence, the overwhelming nature of how many people have sought refuge here and knowing what made them flee is really hard on the heart.

So many people seeking refuge in the desert are relying on humanitarian aid, which is inadequate and sporadic. This cannot go on. 


Despite the tireless efforts of humanitarian organisations and the welcoming gestures from the host communities and the government of Chad, the situation is close to catastrophic.

From insufficient access to food, water and shelter, to concerns about proper hygiene, it’s a daily struggle for those who have left almost everything behind. Approximately 150,000 individuals in Adre transit camp and the surrounding areas live week to week, navigating through precarious conditions to survive.  


The limited food distributions happen irregularly and the amount distributed typically lasts only a couple of weeks. On top of that, not everyone is receiving these distributions.

In Adre, there’s one latrine for 300 to 400 people - far below the recommend standards. Despite tremendous efforts put forth by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and local partners, delivering half a million litres of water daily, refugees only receive between six to eight litres per day.


People don't have enough water to bathe, to clean, or to cook. They don’t have suitable jerry cans in order to be able to collect and store water properly.

We've already seen a very high incidence of malnutrition, as well as high numbers of people suffering from diarrhoea and malaria. Speaking with the doctors here this week, the number of cases of malaria has decreased but it is still widespread.  


Our role now is to ensure enough assistance together with other partners going forward so we don't end up in another catastrophic situation several months down the road. Today, people can survive for the next couple of months, but what will happen after that?  

An elderly person collects water from a distribution point. Refugees here only receive between six to eight litres per day for drinking, bathing, cooking and cleaning. Chad, 7 December 2023. 

RENAUD MASBEYE/MSF


There are many organisations here on the ground, but they don't have the financial resources to meet the needs of the people. So, we need governments, we need donor countries to help organisations on the ground to scale up and meet the emergency needs, from shelter to water to food.  


The people suffering in this crisis are predominantly women and children, while many are also victims of large-scale violence.


Their testimonies recount unspeakable horrors - family members killed, women enduring heinous acts of abduction and sexual violence, and homes reduced to ashes. Their sole aspiration is to find a safe haven in Chad and be able to live in decent and dignified conditions.  


These people, relocated in the desert, cannot face this ordeal alone. This cannot be put aside and forgotten as just another crisis. Solid and sustained humanitarian commitments, and an urgent scale up of aid efforts on the ground are urgently required to avoid a catastrophic crisis and large-scale misery in the months to come. 


View the original report:

English  https://www.msf.org/half-million-sudanese-refugees-chad-dire-need-humanitarian-aid

Arabic https://www.msf.org/ar/نصف-مليون-لاجئ-سوداني-في-تشاد-في-حاجة-ماسة-للمساعدات-الإنسانية

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Saturday, December 30, 2023

Sudan: Survivors give harrowing testimony of Darfur’s year of hell. There’s nobody in El Geneina.

“A country of 46 million people is heading rapidly towards collapse, with very little attention from the outside world,” says Toby Harward, the UN’s deputy humanitarian coordinator for Sudan. “While acknowledging other crises elsewhere in the world right now, the scale of this crisis is unmatched, and it will have significant ramifications for the region and beyond.”

Read more from The Guardian, UK
By FRED HARTER
Supported by the guardian.org
Dated Saturday, 30 December 2023; 13.04 GMT UK - here  is a copy in full:

‘They told us – you are slaves’: survivors give harrowing testimony of Darfur’s year of hell


With the war in Sudan poised to escalate and the humanitarian crisis growing, traumatised survivors of a blood-drenched summer in West Darfur tell of their ordeal


There’s nobody in El Geneina. It’s ghostly quiet. It’s horrific to see areas once full of life now totally empty -Aid worker


We could hear gunfire for two months but our commanders told us it was a tribal conflict and not for us to intervene -Soldier at Ardamata garrison

A group in Wad Madani, in south-eastern Sudan, rally in support of Sudan's army in December, as the war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces continues and refugees flee Darfur in western Sudan. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Gamar al-Deen was visiting a friend when gunmen poured into his neighbourhood on 27 April 2023. “I came back to find they were all dead,” he says. “My mother, my father, uncles, brothers, sisters. I wanted to die myself in that moment.”


Deen, a teacher, lost a dozen members of his family that day. Several of his neighbours were killed too. At his friend’s during the carnage, he saw a group of fighters strip a woman naked and then rape her in the street. “They told us, ‘This area belongs to us, not you, you are slaves,’” he says.


The attack was one of many by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary organisation, and allied Arab militiamen in El Geneina, capital of Sudan’s West Darfur region, between mid-April and mid-June. Their fighters carried out almost daily raids against areas of the city populated by the Masalit, an African ethnic group, according to former residents.

Gamar al-Deen, a teacher in El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur, lost a dozen family members on 27 April 2023 in an attack carried out by RSF paramilitaries


The attacks happened as the world’s attention was focused on fighting 700 miles away in the capital, Khartoum, as foreign governments launched frantic airlifts to evacuate their citizens. The scale of the tragedy unfolding in Darfur, a region ravaged by 20 years of genocidal violence, would only begin to emerge weeks later.


Sometimes the attacks were targeted, as the militiamen hunted down educated Masalits on kill lists. Mostly they were not. Masalit men and boys were accused of being fighters and summarily shot. Women and girls were killed. Women were raped near corpses.


Mahmoud Adam, a former interpreter with the African Union’s Darfur peacekeeping force, which left at the end of 2020, lived close to an RSF base in the city. He said Arab militia would arrive most mornings on horses and motorbikes before heading out to launch attacks on Masalit neighbours.


“For two months, this was their routine,” says Adam. “I would hear them talking about the number of people they had killed at the end of each day.”


The attacks started on 24 April, according to residents, just over a week after nationwide fighting erupted between the Sudanese military and the RSF. They culminated in mid-June, after the killing of the governor of West Darfur, a Masalit, which prompted a panicked evacuation of El Geneina’s Masalit residents to neighbouring Chad and the outlying district of Ardamata, home to a large military base.


Thousands of fleeing civilians made easy pickings for RSF fighters and Arab militia, who fired at the crowds and at passing vehicles, according to survivors. One witness described “a scene from hell” with dozens of bodies along the roadside and washed up on the banks of a nearby river, some with their hands tied.


The hospital run by Médecins Sans Frontières in the Chadian town of Adré received more than 850 patients with bullet, stab and shrapnel wounds between 14 and 17 June.


Sexual violence was a feature of the bloodshed with gunmen rounding up and raping women and girls.


El Geneina once had a mixed population of more than half a million. Today, its Masalit neighbourhoods are deserted. “There’s nobody there, it’s ghostly quiet,” says an aid worker who visited recently. “It is horrific to see areas that used to be bustling, full of life, now totally empty.”

Destruction in El Geneina’s marketplace after fighting between the Sudanese army and the RSF on 29 April 2023


The cycle of violence would repeat itself in early November after the RSF captured the military base in Ardamata, a few miles from El Geneina. The garrison fell amid days of killings and looting. Last month, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, the UN’s genocide prevention adviser, warned that Darfur risked becoming a “forgotten crisis”.


Half a million people now live in hastily assembled camps in Chad. Cash-strapped aid agencies are struggling to respond: the refugees do not have enough mosquito nets, blankets or water. About 175,000 are living in grass huts they weaved themselves.

A Sudanese refugee builds a grass hut in the border town of Adré, eastern Chad, where about 175,000 displaced people live in similar makeshift huts


“Nearly every person who crossed the border has some sort of trauma,” says Eric Kwakya, a psychologist with the International Rescue Committee. “They have seen terrible things.”


Sherif al-Deen, a social worker, was drinking coffee in an El Geneina marketplace when RSF fighters and Arab militia first attacked on 24 April. He raced home, narrowly avoiding bullets ricocheting through the streets. He spent the next seven weeks volunteering at a clinic, collecting the wounded and dead from around the city with a team of volunteers. Bodies were wrapped in blankets and loaded on to donkey carts.

Sherif al-Deen, a social worker, risked his life to help collect the wounded and dead


Sherif saw a group of Arab fighters fire on a crowd with a machine gun, killing eight. Several of his colleagues were shot. “It was very dangerous work, but I had to do it for my people,” he says.


Burying the dead carried risks. To avoid being targeted by snipers, mourners held clandestine funerals for their loved ones at night, says Abdulmonim Adam, a lawyer and human rights monitor, who attended a dozen night burials between April and June.


At one funeral, the mourners came under fire and had to abandon the bodies beside half-dug graves. “If they see you burying the dead – if they see even the flash of a torch – they will kill you,” he says.


One of the deadliest attacks came on 12 and 13 May. At least 280 people were killed over those two days, according to the Sudan Doctors’ Trade Union.


Sara Mohamed* described gunmen looting her home on 12 May. During the attack, they shot her neighbour’s 10-year-old daughter. “I rushed to hold her, to stop the bleeding, but she died in my arms,” she says.


Another young girl was wounded, and a woman was shot through the stomach. When the militia returned a few hours later, they shot Mohamed’s father and burned down her home.


The massacre unfolded in stages over several weeks. Throughout the bloodshed, the Sudanese garrison at Ardamata’s military base did not venture beyond its blast walls. “We could hear gunfire for two months,” says one soldier. “But our commanders told us it was a tribal conflict, that it was not for us to intervene.”

People trying to escape the violence in West Darfur cross the border into Adré, Chad, in August 2023


Mohamed and another woman interviewed by the Guardian were raped during the violence. Mohamed was gang-raped at knifepoint. The second woman was abducted off the street by a group of men, who covered her head and bundled her into a car. It was a targeted attack. “They called me by my name,” she says. “They said, ‘We know you are writing about the RSF on Facebook.’” Eventually she was driven back to El Geneina and dumped outside a clinic, hands still tied behind her back.

‘If they see you burying the dead they will kill you’: Abdulmonim Adam, a lawyer and human rights monitor who attended a dozen secret night-time burials


That was not the end of her ordeal. A few days later, as she fled to Chad, her vehicle was stopped by a group of armed Arab villagers. They shot the car’s two male occupants. Then two of the villagers took turns raping her and the other female passenger, a 13-year-old girl, beneath a tree.


One of the attackers was middle-aged; the other looked about 18. “I heard the man talking about how happy he was to rape such a young girl,” she says.


She still receives threatening social media messages from unidentified men in El Geneina. A recent voice note sent on WhatsApp said: “We will find you in Chad. You are a slut. Whenever you come back to Sudan, we will do what we want with you.”


Six months on, Sudan’s war is poised to escalate. Having captured most of Darfur, the RSF appears to be cementing its grip over Khartoum. This month, the paramilitaries took Wad Madani, the country’s second city, which had been hosting 500,000 refugees from Khartoum and serving as a logistics hub for aid agencies.


Close to 7 million people have been uprooted across Sudan, the world’s biggest displacement crisis. More than half the population need aid, and 3.5 million children under five are malnourished.


“A country of 46 million people is heading rapidly towards collapse, with very little attention from the outside world,” says Toby Harward, the UN’s deputy humanitarian coordinator for Sudan. “While acknowledging other crises elsewhere in the world right now, the scale of this crisis is unmatched, and it will have significant ramifications for the region and beyond.”

Sudanese refugees wait for UN World Food Programme food distribution in Adré


The international response to the crisis in Darfur has been “completely absent”, says Cameron Hudson, a former White House official. Hudson is critical of US-led attempts to mediate an “elite deal” between the RSF and the Sudanese military. “The US is worried the RSF won’t keep showing up if it holds them responsible for their atrocities and introduces sanctions,” he says. “They are holding the US government hostage.”


Meanwhile, among the Sudanese refugees camping in the desert in Chad, unease is growing. “Even here, I do not feel safe,” says Gamar al-Deen, the teacher.


* Name has been changed to protect identity


Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, or 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html


View original: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/dec/30/survivors-give-harrowing-testimony-of-darfur-sudan-year-of-hell


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