Sudan lawyers call for urgent aid, accuse govt of spending money on new buildings

As fighting continues in Khartoum and South Darfur and another 300,000 people in the country fled their homes since last week, the Sudan Democratic Lawyers Front calls for urgent humanitarian aid for the millions of displaced living rough in Sudan and eastern Chad. The lawyers also accuse the authorities of spending money on the construction of new government offices and “villas” in Port Sudan. 

Battles between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the vicinity of the El Shajara Armoured Corps in western Khartoum continued yesterday. Sources reported that the army also attacked RSF positions in the southwestern parts of the city.

In Omdurman, SAF shelled RSF targets from the Karari military base. Fighting continued in the eastern and western parts of Ombadda, where 32 people died on Tuesday as a result of “indiscriminate artillery shelling”. Dozens of others were wounded, and a number of houses were severely damaged, Emergency Lawyers said in a statement yesterday.

A journalist told Radio Dabanga from a neighbourhood in Karari in Omdurman that the sound of guns increased during the early morning of Thursday. Water was cut since Monday. “But we have been lucky with the water provision, several other neighbourhoods in El Sawrat have not had water for more than two months.”

One hospital left

In Nyala, capital of South Darfur and second largest city of Sudan, the air force yesterday continued to bomb concentrations of RSF soldiers entrenched in the neighbourhoods. The ongoing battles are driving more people out of the city, Mahmoud Adam told Radio Dabanga yesterday. “Those unable to leave the city are seeking refuge in safer areas in western Nyala,” he said. “Several of them settled in schools and mosques.”

He appealed to the joint rebel force “that came very late” to protect the remaining people in Nyala, and called on aid organisations to urgently intervene, as “the displaced inside and outside the city have not received any assistance from any party so far”.

The infrastructure in Nyala has been “completely destroyed”, he said. “All health institutions are closed, except the Turkish Hospital, which is the only one still providing medical care. Almost all government buildings and offices of companies have been thoroughly plundered. Even the doors and windows have disappeared.”

‘Relief items sold’

In a statement on social media yesterday, the Sudan Democratic Lawyers Front (SLDF) appealed to “the UN World Food Programme, the UN World Health Organisation, the International Federation of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent Societies, and other aid organisations to provide urgent assistance to the people in Sudan and eastern Chad.

“Thousands of people fleeing the country’s holocaust to the Chadian border suffer from a complete lack of food, while goods and relief materials are sold inside Sudan for the benefit of influential people,” the lawyers said.

The SDLF also criticised the Sudanese government that moved to Port Sudan, capital of Red Sea state, a few weeks after the war erupted in Khartoum on April 15.

‘Thousands of people fleeing to the Chadian border suffer from a complete lack of food, while relief materials are sold inside Sudan’ – Sudan Democratic Lawyers Front

“Not only the injured and chronically ill patients are suffering from the silence from the state insurance companies, but most of the medical staff still working in the country has not received their salaries since end April, while the de facto government is constructing villas and a new republican palace in Port Sudan.”

Separately, the Youth Network for Civil Monitoring demanded that “food aid be delivered and distributed equitably under the supervision of civil society volunteers”.

Visit to Chad

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, US Ambassador to the UN, this week visited the town of Adré in eastern Chad where thousands of people sought refuge from the violence in West and South Darfur.  

In remarks presented at a food distribution centre in the town, the ambassador spoke about having seen about 250 Sudanese children being treated for acute malnutrition.

She said that the USA is the largest single donor for the Sudan emergency response and announced an additional $163 million in aid to people in Sudan and neighbouring countries.

Thomas-Greenfield further announced the sanctioning of Gen Abdelrahim Dagalo, deputy commander of the RSF, for alleged human rights abuses in Sudan, and visa restrictions on RSF General and West Darfur Sector Commander Abdelrahman Juma “for his involvement in a gross violation of human rights”. 

Thomas-Greenfield said she planned to “push Member States, and the entire UN system, to stand on the right side of history – and to urge the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces to put down their weapons immediately”.

Acute malnutrition

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Sudan yesterday reported that as of September 5, about 5.1 people have fled their homes since the war erupted in mid-April, 300,000 more than last week. Nearly 70 per cent of them are originally from Khartoum.

Almost half of all acutely food insecure people across Sudan are in Khartoum, Central Darfur, South Darfur, West Darfur and South Kordofan – the states most affected by the conflict between SAF and RSF, OCHA said.

‘Children are dying from diseases that could have been prevented with sufficient resources’ – OCHA Sudan

About 9.6 million people in these states are experiencing crisis and emergency levels of food insecurity. This includes 2.9 million people who are suffering from acute food insecurity, “which is one step away from famine”.

Overall, 20.3 million people across Sudan are acutely food insecure and need food and livelihood assistance between July and September.

High malnutrition rates, disease outbreaks such as cholera and measles, and related deaths are occurring in several receiving countries (Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, and South Sudan), with reports of children dying from diseases that could have been prevented with sufficient resources.

For women and girls, the risks of domestic violence, conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV), trafficking, and sexual exploitation, harassment, and abuse (SHEA) are staggering, OCHA reported.