UN: Over 1M Have Fled War-Raged Sudan

Facts

• In a joint statement released on Tuesday, UN agencies said that after four months of war, more than 1M people have fled Sudan to neighboring countries, as people in the East African nation are running out of food and dying from lack of medical care.¹
• According to the UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than 3.4M Sudanese have also been internally displaced since fighting broke out between the army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on April 15, while reports of sexual assaults rose by 50%.²
• While the statement calls for an immediate ceasefire, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk condemned the "disastrous, senseless" war in Sudan, saying the forcible displacement and sexual violence "may amount to war crimes."³
• The joint statement, also signed by humanitarian organizations such as Save the Children and CARE, warns that "the situation is spiralling [sic] out of control," with more than 6M Sudanese facing famine and more than 14M children in need of humanitarian assistance.⁴
• In Sudan's western Darfur region, which suffered its own war in the early 2000s, fighting has turned to ethnic violence, with RSF and allied Arab militias targeting "African communities," UN officials say. Dozens were reportedly killed in attacks last week in South Darfur.⁵
• Efforts led by Saudi Arabia and the US to broker a ceasefire in the conflict, in which the UN says more than 4K people have been killed, recently stalled, while humanitarian aid is struggling to reach people due to insecurity, looting, and bureaucratic hurdles.²

Sources: ¹Guardian, ²France 24, ³VOA, ⁴Africanews, and ⁵Republic World.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Republic World. The latest UN figures are a grim reminder to the world not to forget the civil war that has been raging in Sudan for the past four months. Both the army and the RSF are responsible for numerous war crimes and human rights violations, but what matters most to the people now is rapid emergency aid. The international community must live up to its humanitarian responsibility and finally provide sufficient funds to help the suffering population.
• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by New York Times. The US and Saudi Arabia played a problematic role in the genesis of the conflict through their stance in the 2021 coup by the Sudanese army and the then-affiliated RSF. Despite protests against any kind of military rule, Riyadh and Washington helped legitimize the coup and the military takeover. The fact that millions of Sudanese are forced to flee is also a result of meddling by powerful international actors in the country's internal affairs.
• Cynical narrative, as provided by Middle East Monitor. What the Sudanese actually need now is a ceasefire and humanitarian aid — not arms supplies such as those recently provided by the United Arab Emirates to the RSF. As long as regional actors fuel the complex conflict for their own geopolitical interests while pretending to only want to "end the humanitarian suffering," there will be no peace in Sudan.