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.

Video credits:
Channel 4 News @Channel4News

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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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

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UN experts: Sudan’s paramilitary forces carried out ethnic killings and rapes that may be war crimes - Darfur is experiencing “its worst violence since 2005”

EDITH LEDERER, an exceptional war journalist with 50 years experience, never fails to produce well written, accurate news reports devoid of sensationalism and spin. Proper reporting. Here is a good example. 

This report by Ms Lederer today states that a UN panel of experts said Darfur is experiencing “its worst violence since 2005.” Also, according to the panel, the “RSF’s takeover of Darfur relied on three lines of support: the Arab allied communities, dynamic and complex financial networks, and new military supply lines running through Chad, Libya and South Sudan.” 

Also, "while both the Sudanese military and RSF engaged in widespread recruitment drives across Darfur from late 2022, the RSF was more successful, the experts said. And it “invested large proceeds from its pre-war gold business in several industries, creating a network of as many as 50 companies.” The RSF’s complex financial networks “enabled it to acquire weapons, pay salaries, fund media campaigns, lobby, and buy the support of other political and armed groups,” the experts said". Read more.

From The Associated Press (AP)
BY EDITH M. LEDERER
Dated Friday, 01 March 2024, Updated 6:26 AM GMT. Here is a copy in full:

UN experts: Sudan’s paramilitary forces carried out ethnic killings and rapes that may be war crimes

FILE - Residents displaced from a surge of violent attacks squat on blankets and in hastily made tents in the village of Masteri in west Darfur, Sudan, on July 30, 2020. Paramilitary forces and their allied militias fighting to take power in Sudan carried out widespread ethnic killings and rapes while taking control of much of western Darfur that may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, according to a new report to the U.N. Security Council, obtained Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024, by The Associated Press. (Mustafa Younes via AP, File)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Paramilitary forces and their allied militias fighting to take power in Sudan carried out widespread ethnic killings and rapes while taking control of much of western Darfur that may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, United Nations experts said in a new report.

The report to the U.N. Security Council, obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, paints a horrifying picture of the brutality of the Arab-dominated Rapid Support Forces against Africans in Darfur. It also details how the RSF succeeded in gaining control of four out of Darfur’s five states, including through complex financial networks that involve dozens of companies.

Sudan plunged into chaos in April, when long-simmering tensions between its military led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, broke out into street battles in the capital, Khartoum.

Fighting spread to other parts of the country, but in Sudan’s Darfur region it took on a different form: brutal attacks by the RSF on African civilians, especially the ethnic Masalit.

Two decades ago, Darfur became synonymous with genocide and war crimes, particularly by the notorious Janjaweed Arab militias against populations that identify as Central or East African. It seems that legacy has returned, with the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor Karim Khan saying in late January there are grounds to believe both sides are committing possible war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide in Darfur.

The panel of experts said Darfur is experiencing “its worst violence since 2005.”

The ongoing conflict has caused a large-scale humanitarian crisis and displaced approximately 6.8 million people — 5.4 million within Sudan and 1.4 million who have fled to other countries, including approximately 555,000 to neighboring Chad, the experts said.

The RSF and rival Sudanese government forces have both used heavy artillery and shelling in highly populated areas, causing widespread destruction of critical water, sanitation, education and health care facilities.

In their 47-page report, the experts said the RSF and its militias targeted sites in Darfur where displaced people had found shelter, civilian neighborhoods and medical facilities.

According to intelligence sources, the panel said, in just one city — Geneina, the capital of West Darfur state near the Chad border — between 10,000 and 15,000 people were killed.

The experts said sexual violence by the RSF and its allied militia was widespread.

The panel said that, according to reliable sources from Geneina, women and girls as young as 14 years old were raped by RSF elements in a U.N. World Food Program storage facility that the paramilitary force controlled, in their homes, or when returning home to collect belongings after being displaced by the violence. Additionally, 16 girls were reportedly kidnapped by RSF soldiers and raped in an RSF house.

“Racial slurs toward the Masalit and non-Arab community formed part of the attacks,” the panel said. “Neighborhoods and homes were continuously attacked, looted, burned and destroyed,” especially those where Masalit and other African communities lived, and their people were harassed, assaulted, sexually abused, and at times executed.

The experts said prominent Masalit community members were singled out by the RSF, which had a list, and the group’s leaders were harassed and some executed. At least two lawyers, three prominent doctors and seven staff members, and human rights activists monitoring and reporting on the events were also killed, they said.

The RSF and its allied militias looted and destroyed all hospitals and medical storage facilities, which resulted in the collapse of health services and the deaths of 37 women with childbirth complications and 200 patients needing kidney dialysis, the panel said.

After the killing of the wali, or governor, of West Darfur in June, the report said, Masalit and African communities decided to seek protection at Ardamata, just outside Geneina. A convoy of thousands moved out at midnight but as they reached a bridge, RSF and allied militias indiscriminately opened fire, and survivors reported that an estimated 1,000 people were killed, they said.

The panel stressed that disproportionate and indiscriminate attacks on civilians — including torture, rapes and killings as well as destruction of critical civilian infrastructure — constitute war crimes under the 1949 Geneva conventions.

The RSF was formed out of Janjaweed fighters by Sudan’s former President Omar al-Bashir, who ruled the country for three decades, was overthrown during a popular uprising in 2019, and is wanted by the International Criminal Court for charges of genocide and other crimes during the conflict in Darfur in the 2000s.

According to the panel, the “RSF’s takeover of Darfur relied on three lines of support: the Arab allied communities, dynamic and complex financial networks, and new military supply lines running through Chad, Libya and South Sudan.”

While both the Sudanese military and RSF engaged in widespread recruitment drives across Darfur from late 2022, the RSF was more successful, the experts said. And it “invested large proceeds from its pre-war gold business in several industries, creating a network of as many as 50 companies.”

The RSF’s complex financial networks “enabled it to acquire weapons, pay salaries, fund media campaigns, lobby, and buy the support of other political and armed groups,” the experts said.

United States Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who visited Chad in September, called the report’s findings “horrific” and expressed “deep disappointment” that the U.N. Security Council and the international community have paid such little attention to the allegations.

“The people of Sudan feel that they have been forgotten,” she said.

In light of the humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan and the broader region, Thomas-Greenfield demanded that the Sudanese military lift its prohibition on cross-border assistance from Chad and facilitate cross-line assistance from the east. She also demanded in a statement Wednesday that the RSF halt the looting of humanitarian warehouses and that both parties stop harassing humanitarian aid workers.

“The council must act urgently to alleviate human suffering, hold perpetrators to account, and bring the conflict in Sudan to an end,” the U.S. ambassador said. “Time is running out.”

Source: https://apnews.com/article/sudan-paramilitary-ethnic-killings-united-nations-report-37eb2b6980e029d5603d83401619c85d

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