Today, 15 April 2024, we commemorate the start of the war in Sudan. As PAX, we express our solidarity with the Sudanese people who did not want this war and did not start it.
One year ago, war broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who are both parties of the Sudanese security architecture. The war was an eruption of tensions over competition over their roles and economic interests. Both SAF and RSF have a history of committing extreme violations against the Sudanese people, which are continuing until today.
Today, almost 18 million people in Sudan are facing acute hunger. This number is comparable to the total amount of the population of the Netherlands. Aid obstruction and the use of starvation as a weapon of war are the main causes of this acute hunger. In addition, both parties engage in harassment of and attacks against aid workers, human rights defenders, journalists and women’s activists. Sudan’s population faces indiscriminate attacks such as conflict related sexual violence, human trafficking, enforced disappearances, extra judicial killings, indiscriminate bombing in populated areas and looting. This is happening despite SAF and RSF’s declared commitment to the protection of civilians in the Jeddah Declaration they both signed on 11th of May 2023.
Today, France, Germany and the European Union are organizing an international humanitarian conference in Paris to raise funds necessary to meet the dire needs of the Sudanese population. PAX calls upon all countries, including the Netherlands, to donate generously. However, money alone is not enough.
In addition, it is essential to put pressure on the actors obstructing aid and to prosecute and punish those guilty of the use of starvation as a weapon of war. Efforts should be made to provide more long term and flexible support to Sudanese frontline actors, organized in structures such as the Emergency Response Rooms (ERRs), who play key roles in humanitarian relief and community protection. It is the young men and women active on the frontlines in groups such as ERRs, as well as many other grassroots peace and community protection initiatives, who are the hope for the future of Sudan. It is essential that more funding and protection mechanisms are made available to support and protect them in flexible and conflict sensitive manners.
In addition, the international community needs to put clear and concerted pressure on international spoilers whose support of the conflict leads to the continuation of this war. The delivery of weapons and financial and other types of support make spoilers complicit to crimes committed on the ground. Such acts of support should face clear international scrutiny and action.
It is essential that the international community overcomes its interest-based divisions and comes together to build a coherent strategy towards an inclusive peace process that will steer Sudan back to a civilian transition, so clearly desired by the Sudanese population who spearheaded a people’s revolution in 2019. The instability of the wider Horn of Africa region is a severe threat for regional and international security in general that unfortunately does not receive enough international attention. However, the risk of a further collapse of the Horn of Africa region alone should be reason enough to come together and prioritize peace and stability for Sudan. #standwithsudan