The UN is talking about the world’s largest refugee crisis, the WHO fears a famine: the situation in Sudan is threatening to get out of control. It is particularly bad in Darfur in the west of the country.
Yasmin lies on her aunt’s lap, beads of sweat running down the little girl’s cheeks – here in the scorching heat of a refugee camp in Chad. Pictures from the Reuters news agency show the nightmare that the four-year-old has just experienced: a deep scar runs down her thigh. It will remind the little girl of her mother for the rest of her life.
“The bullet hit Yasmin first,” says the aunt. “It went through, the bullet exited again and then hit her mother. She was eight months pregnant. Her mother died without anyone being able to bury her.”
The seriously injured Yasmin was left behind by the militias to die, but other refugees found the little girl on the street and brought her across the border to safety in Chad.
“They brought her on a cart, she was in terrible pain.” The child was taken to hospital, then transferred to another city. “After that she felt better. But her leg still hurts and she often cries all night long.”
“Largest Refugee crisis of the world”
Yasmin comes from Darfur, a region in western Sudan where a terrible civil war has been raging for more than a year. Two generals are fighting for power and are plunging an entire country into chaos. At least 16,000 people have been killed and tens of thousands injured. Around nine million people are on the run – as many as the inhabitants of Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Cologne combined.
The United Nations is talking about the largest refugee crisis in the world. The situation is most dramatic in Darfur, where old ethnic conflicts have flared up again – there are mass executions, rapes, and the worst crimes against humanity. The UN Special Representative for the Prevention of Genocide, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, warned the UN Security Council of an impending genocide:
The current situation has all the hallmarks of an impending genocide, with clear indications that some of these crimes have already been committed. Civilians are being targeted because of their origins. In Darfur, civilians are being killed because of the colour of their skin, because of their ethnicity, because of who they are.
Observers fear bloodbath
Currently, the troops of militia leader Mohammad Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemeti, the so-called Rapid Support Forces, are stationed outside the city of Al-Fashir in the Darfur region, about 800 kilometers west of the capital Khartoum. Observers fear a bloodbath, with residents caught between the fronts.
“Al-Fashir is under siege,” said Sudanese observer Shawgi Abdel Azim. “No humanitarian aid, no food is coming in, up to two million people are stuck there and now bombs and rockets are raining down on them – and if the city is stormed, many will die.”
The UN High Commissioner is warning both commanders, said spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani. “Fighting in Al-Fashir would have catastrophic consequences for many civilians trapped there and facing starvation – it worsens the conflict with disastrous humanitarian consequences.”
WHO warns of Famine catastrophe
In addition to the violence, there is hunger: more than a third of the people in the capital Khartoum and in the Darfur region are already suffering from acute hunger, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Around 25 million people in the region are threatened by hunger.
“The situation is dramatic,” said Cindy McCain, Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme, in an interview with ARD“I appeal to the international community not to forget the people of Sudan. It is already a forgotten conflict. And if we do nothing, we will see the worst famine in the world in Sudan.”
Little Yasmin made it – she and her relatives are safe in the neighboring country of Chad. But no one knows what will happen to her and the millions of other displaced people from Sudan.
Anna Osius, ARD Cairo, tagesschau, 24.05.2024 15:22