♦ Sudan: This week’s news in brief ♦

A compact digest of the past week’s most-read highlights, from the heart of Sudan. Subscribe to receive this digest weekly in your inbox.

Sudanese children face starvation in Chad camp
 
19/01/2024 – IRDIMI CAMP, CHAD. At least five Sudanese refugee children died of starvation last week in Irdimi camp in eastern Chad, as dwindling food supplies and faltering humanitarian aid leave malnutrition in their wake. The dire shortage of nutrition is especially impacting children and seniors.
 
Reporting the death of yet another child, a Sudanese refugee in Irdimi camp told Radio Dabanga of a lack of food and milk for children and said that diseases are spreading as the children’s resistance to infection drops. The caller said that refugee representatives have met with the camp administrators, who informed them that the contracts of organisations working in the camps expired in December. “They said they are waiting for other organisations to arrive in January, but they have not arrived thus far.” “We are afraid that we will lose more children in the camp due to malnutrition.”

UN Panel of Experts reports on ‘the worst violence in Darfur since 2005’
 
23/01/2024 – NEW YORK. The latest report by the five-member UN Panel of Experts on the situation in Darfur, presented on January 13 but not officially released so far, covers the bloodshed experienced in the region since the start of the war between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on April 15 last year as ‘the worst violence since 2005’.
 
The report, of which Radio Dabanga obtained a copy, states that the RSF “used several types of heavy and/or sophisticated weapons which they were not using there before” in their campaign in Darfur. The panel also states that the “disproportionate and indiscriminate attacks on civilians, mistreatment of civilians (torture, rape, killing, mass arrests, and detentions), forced displacement, pillaging and destruction of critical civilian infrastructure, including humanitarian assets and attacks on personnel” constitute war crimes. Some may even amount to crimes against humanity.

Water supply secured for 40,000 Sudanese refugees in Chad 
24/01/2024 – IRDIMI CAMP / GAGA CAMP, CHAD. Last Thursday, new water tanks were installed in Gaga camp, eastern Chad, which hosts approximately 40,000 Sudanese refugees. In Irdimi camp, Sudanese refugees demonstrated in front of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office to demand suitable access to aid. 
 
Red Sea tensions threaten Sudan ports activity 
24/01/2024 – PORT SUDAN. Workers at Sudan’s Red Sea ports have warned of an imminent ‘complete shipping paralysis’ due to growing tensions in the Bab El Mandeb strait.
 
OCHA: 19,600 people newly displaced this week in Sudan  
23/01/2024 – NEW YORK / PORT SUDAN. The United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced that 19,600 people were displaced in Sudan over the past week, making the total number of displaced and refugees 7.6 million since the war broke out. Port Sudan in Red Sea state has seen a large increase in displaced shelters as more people arrive from other parts of Sudan.
 
Sudan timeline October-December 2023: War deepens Sudan’s suffering 
19/01/2024 – DABANGA SUDAN. The armed conflict between the SAF and the RSF intensifies in the Sudanese capital and in Darfur. The RSF wrests control of South and Central Darfur in October, and of West and East Darfur a month later. In December, the RSF invades El Gezira’s capital Wad Madani, triggering fears of RSF raids into northern and eastern Sudan. The overall situation in the country deteriorates further. According to the UN humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, the people are ‘balancing on a knife’s edge‘.
 
South Sudan tightens border control with Sudan
18/01/2024 – JUBA / DELLING. South Sudan is to impose stricter control on the 2,000-kilometre border with Sudan, 24 hours after the UN announced its intention to find a new route for the transit of humanitarian aid to Sudan through South Sudan, and in reaction to the RSF takeover of El Gezira.
 
Sudan fighting threatens Merowe UNESCO World Heritage site 
17/01/2024 – NAGAA / EL GITEINA / OMDURMAN. Clashes between the SAF and the paramilitary RSF have been reported near archaeological sites on Merowe Island, a UNESCO World Heritage site in River Nile state. Other fighting was reported in White Nile state and Omdurman.
 
South Darfur tribes plan for reconciliation  
16/01/2024 – NYALA. Efforts to organise a reconciliation conference between the Habbaniya and Salamat tribes in South Darfur have begun in the state capital, Nyala.
 
Sudan Armed Forces advance in Omdurman, politicians detained by RSF and army  
16/01/2024 – OMDURMAN / KHARTOUM. Battles continued between the SAF and the RSF in old Omdurman. More than 50 people were killed and wounded in airstrikes on Soba El Mahatta in Khartoum. Both RSF and Military Intelligence detained members of the National Umma Party.
 
Sudan activists: ‘At least 13 dead in Khartoum clashes’ 
15/01/2024 – KHARTOUM / OMDURMAN. At least 13 civilians are now confirmed dead as a result of the ongoing clashes between the paramilitary RSF and the SAF in El Salama, southern Khartoum.
 
MSF documents ‘scale and intensity of ethnic violence’ in Darfur
14/01/2024 – GENEVA. A retrospective mortality survey carried out among Darfuri refugees in eastern Chad by Epicentre, the medical research and epidemiology centre of Médecins Sans Frontières’ (MSF), confirms the appalling scale of the wave of violence that swept through the region last June. ‘El Geneina is now virtually empty of the Masalit community that used to live there.’