The situation in Sudan threatens to deteriorate: Croats demonstrate against corruption

The bloody conflict in Sudan has been going on for ten months. Welthungerhilfe’s secretary general, Matthias Mogge, made his own impressions on the spot. He speaks of a terrible situation.

Overcrowded refugee facilities, increasingly difficult supplies and conflict parties intensifying the fighting – this is how Mogge, the secretary general of Welthungerhilfe, describes the situation in Sudan. After returning from a visit to the crisis state in northeast Africa, he said there were now enormous problems for humanitarian workers there.

In the western province of Darfur, the supply situation is catastrophic and hunger is increasing. “As a humanitarian organization, we fear that the situation will only get worse in the coming months. The few reserves that were left have now been used up.” Furthermore, access to starving people in Darfur is limited.

The northeastern port city of Port Sudan, where many have fled as a result of the fighting in the capital Khartoum, seems quite normal at first glance. But enormous problems soon became apparent, Mogge told the German news agency DPA in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Friday. “You can see that the authorities and the country are having enormous problems housing and accepting these refugees.”

Most refugees in the world

According to the UN, Sudan is now the country with the most refugees and displaced persons in the world, with nearly eight million people having fled within the country or across its borders due to fighting between government forces and the RSF militia.

In Port Sudan, Mogge got an impression of the living conditions in the unfinished residential wing of a vocational school, where 2,000 people now live. “The sanitary conditions I saw there were really catastrophic and poor.” Welthungerhilfe attempted to rehabilitate the sewage system in the building. “When we got there, everything was covered in feces. That’s kind of okay now, but you notice that this sewerage system is not going to cut it.”

In Darfur, on the other hand, it is difficult to reach people in need, Mogge reports, citing organization employees on the ground. “Because of the fighting, people had to leave their fields and villages, often now living in camps and dependent on food aid,” he said.

The fighting becomes more intense

There have been no serious talks on a ceasefire between de facto ruler Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy and RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Daglan for months; instead, an intensification of fighting has recently been observed.

Many of his interlocutors in the Sudanese authorities assured him that “everything would be over in two to three weeks,” Mogge said. And Daglan also issued a statement saying the war should be over by the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. The fighting has been going on since April last year. “Both groups still firmly believe in victory. Both groups believe that they actually have the upper hand in the situation,” Mogge said. “And I don’t think this means anything good for people in general.” (saw/sda/dpa)