The Middle East Section calls upon anthropologists and scholars of Southwest Asia and North Africa to recognize, and call attention to, the man-made crises in Sudan engendered by the fighting that erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces on 15 April 2023. In addition to a high number of casualties and injuries, the ongoing violence has brought about a famine, led to the displacement of millions of civilians and the spread of infectious diseases, crippled the education sector, and been accompanied by sexual violence and other forms of atrocities.
Filippo Grandi, the UN Commissioner for Refugees, has characterized the level of suffering in the country as “truly unconscionable.” He added that “Sudan is the definition of a perfect storm: shocking human rights atrocities, with millions uprooted by this insane war and other wars that came before it. A terrible famine is looming, and severe floods will soon hamper aid deliveries even more. We are losing a generation to this war, yet peace efforts are not working.”
Since the war broke out, a conservative assessment estimates that 150,000 people have been killed, and around 33,000 others have been wounded or injured though rights activists believe that the numbers are much higher. In addition, UNICEF has estimated that nine million people have been displaced since the outbreak of the war, most of whom are living in abysmal conditions due to overcrowding and lack of facilities. There are also reports of sexual violence and other atrocities that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity according to rights groups. Moreover, the collapse of the health system has led to the spread of infectious diseases, in particular cholera which has claimed the lives of 430 people recently. Sudan’s health ministry has estimated that there are around 14,000 people who have infected with cholera.
A recent report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) has estimated that 755,000 people in ten states “face Catastrophe (IPC Phase 5),” and that 8.5 million, namely eighteen percent of the population, “face Emergency (IPC Phase 4).” These statistics means that millions of people in Sudan are facing extreme food insecurity or imminent famine. Commenting on these findings, Martin Griffiths, the outgoing UN aid chief, has remarked that “These are staggering numbers. It’s beyond imagination.” Experts have blamed the two warring factions for causing a hunger crisis by using food as a weapon of war against civilians, and for hampering relief efforts by targeting local responders and civil society.
Alex de Waal has called upon the United States and its Western allies to “call out Sudan’s terrifying hunger crisis for what it is—an intentional aim of the warring parties,” and “to push the Gulf powers that have clout to force the two sides to end the tactics that are driving it” in order to avert a catastrophe. Noting the use of starvation as an instrument of ethnic cleansing, de Waal has emphasized that “Those who are starving are the Masalit, Fur, and Zaghawa ethnic groups that the RSF has targeted for ethnic cleansing—or on whose lands Hemedti’s fighters have taken everything that can be stolen or eaten.”
The ongoing war has also led to collapse of the education system in Sudan. In a recent statement, the Middle East Studies Association’s Committee for Academic Freedom has expressed concerns over “the destruction of universities, the conversion of campuses into defense positions, and the displacement of students and professors.” Many universities have suffered considerable damage, or were repurposed as shelters to house displaced people. According to the Sudanese Minister of Higher Education, Mohamed Hassan Dahab, around 115 public and private universities and colleges in the Khartoum area alone have “been destroyed or lost buildings, equipment, libraries, and other facilities to vandalism and looting that occurred in the wake of military clashes