Baerbock travels to South Sudan: an often forgotten region

During her visit to South Sudan on Friday, Foreign Minister Baerbock wants to talk primarily about the civil war that has been raging in the region since April. Millions of people have fled. But there is hardly any help.

Amid the barren landscape of eastern Chad, there is a sea of ​​white tents stretching to the horizon. Women in colorful robes crouch with their children in the shade of the tent tarpaulins and wait. Those who escaped the horrors in Sudan live here. “They attacked us for three days,” Roukaya’s mother told Reuters. The armed men went door to door and rounded up the men. Then they would have killed her. “They also took the father of my children out onto the street and shot him there. They took everything from me and I had to flee to Chad with the children,” she says.

The descriptions of the atrocities from the war in Sudan continue. Particularly affected: The Darfur region in western Sudan – ethnic cleansing is said to have been going on there for months. “Some victims died in mass executions or were burned alive,” UN spokesman Jeremy Laurence reported weeks ago. Women and girls talk about sexual violence. Thousands of people were displaced.

Millions of people on the run

The total number of refugees in Sudan is in the millions: Most people are on the run within Sudan, but neighboring countries such as Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Sudan have also taken in millions of refugees. The situation in South Sudan in particular is catastrophic. The civil war-torn country is one of the ten poorest countries in the world, there is a lack of government structures and large parts of the population are starving. Now the refugees from Sudan are joining them – some of them returnees who are staggering from one misery to the next.

The situation in Chad is also extremely difficult – not to mention the situation within Sudan, says Hashim Bilal from Welthungerhilfe. “We are talking about 7.4 million people who have lost their homes. Nowhere in the world have so many people been displaced within one country as in Sudan.” But wars like Gaza or Ukraine receive much more attention, Bilal complains. “We need money for Sudan – the international humanitarian aid plan was only 30 percent funded last year. And now we’re already in 2024.”

Humanitarian organizations are having great difficulty bringing aid to Sudan at all as the fighting has spread throughout the country – medical supplies are said to have collapsed and, according to Hashim Bilal, more than 15 million people need food aid. “We discuss every day where we can and cannot go so that we don’t end up in the wrong place at the wrong time and endanger our employees. Some regions are completely inaccessible. You have to make new decisions every day.”

Army fights against RSF militia

Since April last year, the troops of the army chief and de facto ruler Abdel Fattah al-Burhan have been fighting in Sudan against the RSF militia, which is commanded by his former deputy Mohamed Dagalo, known as Hemeti. The two men are fighting for power in the country. The fighting is destroying an entire country.

The RSF militia – the abbreviation stands for “Rapid Support Forces” – is accused of massive human rights crimes. Their leader Hemeti is therefore apparently working on his image and wants to present himself as a potential president of the country – recently Hemeti no longer appears in a uniform but in a suit and has already been received like a statesman in several African countries.

The would-be president is reportedly supported by the United Arab Emirates. In interviews he appears conciliatory and apologizes to the people. “We did not cause this war. Nevertheless, I apologize to every child, to every woman. I tell them: Don’t lose hope! I hope there will be peace again soon,” said Hemeti.

Of successful ones Peace negotiations So far there is no trace

Words of comfort as the killing continues? So far there is no trace of successful peace negotiations – the warring parties blame each other for the failure of all talks. Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has now put the war in Sudan on her agenda – the conflict must not become a “forgotten crisis”, demanded the Green politician.

But that has apparently happened a long time ago – what is probably weighing on the people of Sudan and local aid organizations the most, aside from the war, many say, is the feeling of being forgotten by the international community.