Jan Egeland, the leader of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), has expressed grave concerns that war-torn Sudan is at risk of becoming yet another failed state due to the disintegration of civil society amidst a surge of armed factions.
In addition to the primary combatants—the national army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces—numerous smaller “ethnic militias” are engaging in looting and committing acts of violence against civilians. “The factions are destroying their own communities and perpetrating massacres against their own populace,” he remarked.
For the past nineteen months, a violent struggle for power has ensued between the army and the RSF, resulting in over 10 million individuals being displaced from their homes and pushing the nation to the edge of famine. “Everything I witnessed reaffirms that this is indeed the most significant humanitarian crisis we are currently facing, marked by unprecedented hunger and displacement,”
Mr. Egeland stated after his visit to Sudan in September, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that starvation is pervasive throughout Sudan. Many soup kitchens have had to shut down due to a lack of funding. Egeland noted that the insufficient humanitarian response has led to the remaining aid merely “prolonging lives rather than saving them.” “The majority of Sudan is experiencing starvation; it is widespread,” he emphasized, indicating that starvation has been weaponized in the conflict. Some experts in food security are concerned that as many as 2.5 million individuals may succumb to hunger by the end of this year.
Mr. Egeland cautioned that the global response to the situation in Sudan is severely inadequate, emphasizing that Europe must take action to prevent a potential refugee crisis by investing in “aid, protection, and peace in this region.” He noted that the operation is significantly underfunded, despite being the largest emergency response in the world.
Since the onset of the civil war, thousands have lost their lives, and human rights organizations have raised alarms regarding the possibility of ethnic cleansing and genocide occurring in Sudan. Nevertheless, negotiations between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the army have yielded no results. Egeland remarked, “The conflict will cease when these warlords perceive that they have more to lose by continuing the fight than by opting for a rational resolution.”
