Sudan civil war leaves millions needing aid and thousands believed dead — BBC News

[0:00] to another war now, Sudan's civil war. It's now entering its fourth year and it's triggered the [0:05] world's worst humanitarian crisis. Tens of thousands of people have been killed, millions [0:10] displaced with widespread allegations of ethnic cleansing and acts amounting to genocide. Despite [0:16] the scale of suffering, the war receives limited global attention and aid agencies say only a [0:22] fraction of required funding is reaching Sudan. Drawing on testimonies from displaced civilians [0:27] in Darfur, humanitarians and analysts, the BBC's Kalkidan Yibeltal, examines what lies ahead. [0:36] Sudan is burning. Three years of a shattering war has left one of Africa's ancient nations [0:42] on the brink of collapse. Tens of thousands are killed and millions are forced out of their homes. [0:51] In Tawila, a sprawling settlement for the displaced in the country's northern Darfur region, [0:56] victims of a vicious war speak of living through one tragedy after another. [1:00] We lost many people, brothers and sisters. I lost my brother, Musab. He was killed in [1:09] shaling in El Fasher while going to the market. He was sitting with us and we were enjoying his [1:15] company. Then he went out and they brought us his lifeless body. It tore his body apart. [1:21] I have never seen such a sin in my life. Hundreds of thousands live here now in squalid conditions. [1:31] Many of them arrived in recent months after the region's capital El Fasher was captured by the [1:37] Rapid Support Forces or the Arasif, one of the warring factions, as the group strengthened its [1:43] foothold in Darfur. Abdul Majid was already displaced and living in a camp when the Arasif [1:50] seized El Fasher. He had to flee again to reach here with his extended family. [1:59] We have no food. We are very exhausted. Fire killed my younger brother and burned our belongings. [2:07] We have no source of income. Now we are 12 people here. My father is elderly and cannot work. [2:15] And my older brothers died in the war. As the war enters its fourth year, there are pockets of [2:24] fighting along the country's borders with Chad and Ethiopia. But the main front lines remain in the [2:30] resource-rich Cordofan states. With the world grappling with multiple overlapping conflicts, [2:37] Sudan remains largely forgotten. That's despite the fact that it has the globe's worst displacement crisis, [2:43] that famine is declared in parts of the country, and that it was once dubbed by the UN as the epicenter of human suffering. [2:51] The health sector is in tatters and food production capacities are being destroyed. Yet, as of this month, [3:00] aid agencies received only 16% of the required funding. Mass atrocities, sexual violence, hallmarks of genocide. [3:10] Any one of those words on their own should be enough to get your attention. But all of them together, [3:17] everyone should be standing up and doing their utmost, no matter what else is going on in the world. [3:24] Warring factions are solidifying their positions. And more than a quarter of the country's population, [3:30] or 14 million people, are now homeless because of the violence. [3:34] Several attempts to broker peace have failed. And the fear is now the country could split into two. [3:40] The state has not only collapsed, but now the country is looking at a de facto partition. [3:45] You know, history and other conflicts with a similar de facto partition right now in other parts of the [3:53] world tell us that it's very hard to reverse such a de facto partition once it's, you know, [3:59] once it solidifies on the ground. [4:02] With the shaky Iran ceasefire stealing most of the world's attention and disrupting humanitarian supply lines, [4:09] there is little room for optimism in Sudan. [4:13] Calqidani Beltal, BBC News. [4:16] Well, our Africa correspondent, Barbara Pletush, has been reporting on the war in Sudan for the past three years. [4:22] I asked her whether the situation there is only getting worse. [4:27] Yes, I think that's very fair to say. [4:29] As Calqidan was reporting there, the humanitarian situation is dire. [4:34] The numbers are staggering, frankly, nearly 34 million people in need of some sort of humanitarian assistance. [4:41] You have nearly 12 million displaced inside and outside the country. [4:44] You have almost 70 percent of the population now under the living in poverty, under the line of poverty. [4:51] And you have no sign that the conflict is coming to an end. [4:55] And it has moved. [4:57] Remember, we were reporting last year about Khartoum. [4:59] That's when the army recaptured the capital city from the paramilitary fighters, the Rapid Support Forces, [5:04] which felt a bit like a turning point. [5:06] But really, you know, things are quieter in the capital. [5:10] People are returning there. [5:11] But the fighting has shifted elsewhere. [5:12] And the main front line now is in those southern Kordofan states. [5:17] And that is extremely deadly and extremely disruptive. [5:21] And millions of people, again, are suffering from not being able to get enough food. [5:26] There are pockets of famine. [5:28] And neither side shows any signs of compromise. [5:31] Both sides seem to believe that they can achieve their goals militarily. [5:36] Both sides are backed by regional powers, none of whom are actually placing huge amounts of pressure on them to come to some sort of peace agreement. [5:47] The U.S. envoy, Masadbulus, is trying to push for a humanitarian ceasefire. [5:52] Again, not much progress reported on that. [5:54] And most experts believe that the signs instead at this point look like the conflict will probably worsen. [6:00] And I should say it has shifted in the sense that there's a lot more drone warfare now. [6:05] And a lot of civilians are being killed by drones, nearly 700 since the beginning of the year. [6:11] Last week, there was an airstrike or a drone strike blamed on the army that killed 58 people at a wedding celebration. [6:20] Last month, again, a drone strike blamed on the army that killed around 70 people in a hospital. [6:25] The RSF is accused of firing drones into cities under siege in the south of the country. [6:31] So it does look really quite bleak. [6:33] I mean, the one ray of hope or one ray of light, I should say, is that there are quite a lot of local volunteers. [6:39] They're called emergency response rooms, but there's also community kitchens. [6:42] People just rallying, trying to help their fellow citizens in whatever way they can. [6:47] So you're seeing that solidarity there. [6:49] But really, they are also facing a bleaker and bleaker prospects. [6:52] See you next time.