United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres did not hold back on Monday when he addressed ambassadors at the Security Council (SC) on what some commentators have labelled “the world’s forgotten war” in Sudan.
The people of the East African country, he said, find themselves in “a nightmare of violence, hunger, disease and displacement”, as a brutal war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) rages on.
“Suffering is growing by the day with almost 25 million people now in need of humanitarian assistance,” he said of a situation he called “a series of unrelenting nightmares”.
“Thousands of civilians killed, and countless others facing unspeakable atrocities, including widespread rape and sexual assaults,” the diplomats heard before being told mass killings and sexual violence have been reported in Aj Jazirah state adding further to the misery that is Sudan at present.
Guterres maintains the Sudan conflict has the potential to destabilise the region, affecting countries from “the Sahel to the Red Sea”.
Famine conditions, the top UN official said, are now taking hold in displacement camps in North Darfur with an estimated three quarters of a million people on “the brink of starvation”.
“Sudan is also the largest displacement crisis in the world with over 11 million people fleeing since April 2023. This includes nearly three million who crossed into neighbouring countries. Making matters worse is “several hundred thousand” at the mercy of extreme climate and weather impacts.
Guterres repeated an earlier UN call for the belligerents to stop fighting and “seek peace through negotiation”.
“Instead of lowering tensions, they (RSF and SAF) are escalating military action.”
He wants three priorities to be given immediate action. They are a cessation of hostilities, stronger measures to protect civilians and uninterrupted access for delivery of humanitarian aid.
Another who sees the Sudan conflict as largely ignored by the international community as it focuses on the ongoing Gaza/Israel and Russia/Ukraine wars is South African International Relations and Co-operation Minister Ronald Lamola. He used a keynote address at a Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA) conference in Sandton to point out the Sudan conflict was “a footnote” while the “media glare” remained firmly fixed on Gaza/Israel and Russian/Ukraine.
He told the conference Africa has to take on the responsibility of helping end wars such as the one in Sudan admitting, according to SANews, it was not going to be easy. “The presence of unconventional participants on both sides, including mercenaries, foreign volunteers, Special Forces and paramilitary squads, has made Africa a place for proxy wars,” he is reported as telling the conference.
