The U.S. is imposing travel and economic sanctions on members of Sudan’s warring factions. A war between two factions of Sudan’s government — its army versus the Rapid Support Forces militia — has persisted for seven weeks.
Tens of thousands have died of starvation, and thousands have been killed by gunfire and artillery shells. More than 1.6 million people have been driven from their homes to other places within Sudan or across its borders, the United Nations says, with many fleeing to neighboring countries like Egypt, Chad and South Sudan.
More than 13.6 million children are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance in Sudan as fighting has cut off the transportation of food stuffs. Children in orphanages have died in droves as snipers and fighting make it hard for orphanage workers to go to markets to buy food, or even get to work to feed the orphans. In one orphanage in Sudan’s capital, at least 60 infants, toddlers and older children perished while trapped in harrowing conditions as fighting raged outside. Most died from lack of food and from fever. Twenty-six died in two days in late May.
An 85-year-old British citizen was shot by snipers and his wife died of starvation after they were unable to leave Sudan. Faced with starvation and with no water, the man left his wife to seek help. While he was away he was shot three times – in his hand, chest and lower back – by snipers. He survived after being taken to a relative in another part of Khartoum, a big city with more than 5 million people in its metropolitan area. His wife was left to fend for herself and it was impossible for his relatives to reach her in an area surrounded by snipers. As a result she died of starvation.
On the ground, multiple ceasefires have been violated by both parties and Saudi and United States-brokered peace negotiations have now been suspended. On June 1, America imposed the first sanctions in response to the war in Sudan, warning that it will “hold accountable” all those undermining peace in Africa’s third-largest country.
The sanctions target companies associated with the conflict’s actors, including those controlled by RSF chief Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo in the United Arab Emirates and the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, as well as two companies owned by the Sudanese Armed Forces, led by Sudan’s head of state, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.
The White House also said it was imposing visa restrictions “against actors who are perpetuating the violence”, but did not identify them.
The US and Saudi Arabia suspended ceasefire talks on June 1 due to repeated violations of multiple ceasefires.
The Sudanese army backed out of the talks a day earlier, saying the RSF is not implementing parts of an agreement that had been signed days prior.
The Biden administration has said that it is still coordinating with its co-mediator, Saudi Arabia, as well as the African Union and Arab League, to urge the warring sides to end the conflict.
In continuing violations of ceasefires, residents said heavy artillery fire was occurring in cities in Khartoum state on June 1, including in northern Omdurman and Khartoum North, two cities with over 4 million people.
The firing occurred despite a ceasefire that was supposed to last until June 4.
More artillery shelling took place in the southern part of the capital, Khartoum, on June 1, with the Sudanese army trying to take control of an RSF military base.
Sudan’s region of Darfur, where genocide occurred over a decade ago, continues to be a hotbed of violence. Fighting there has left tens of thousands homeless. A regional human-rights group said this past week alone at least 200 people have been killed in the westernmost city of el-Geneina, where over a thousand people were previously killed in fighting and killings of non-Arab civilians that occurred during a communications blackout that has lasted for more than ten days.
The UN refugee agency said on Thursday that more than 100,000 people have fled violence in Sudan to Chad, Sudan’s western neighbor, with that number possibly doubling in the next three months. Chad, one of the poorest countries in the world, already had about 700,000 refugees before the current war in Sudan, mostly from civil-war torn Central African Republic or the country of South Sudan.
Hundreds of thousands of Sudanese have fled to neighboring countries in Africa, such as to Egypt, Sudan’s northern neighbor, and to Sudan’s western neighbor Chad, even though Chad is one of the poorest and most backward places on Earth (so backward that countless people die of diarrheal diseases there, and much of the population goes hungry). Countless thousands of people in Sudan’s capital Khartoum, a desert city with over 5 million people in its metro area, have now run out of clean water and food.
Many people would like to leave Sudan, where thousands of civilians have died, and many people have run out of food as shops close.
But some can’t leave, for an odd reason: because Western Embassies that had their passports fled the country without returning their passport. For example, two months ago, Ahmad Mahmoud submitted his passport and visa application to the Swedish embassy in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. He never imagined they would not give him back his passport, which he needs to travel even to neighboring countries like Egypt.
But when fighting broke out between the Sudanese army and air force on one side, and the Rapid Support Forces militia on the other, Swedish diplomats suspended consular services and fled Sudan without warning.
Street battles in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, have left patients and doctors trapped in hospitals for days without supplies, or even water, despite intense heat. Khartoum is the hottest national capital on Earth. Weeks ago, the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors and Sudan’s Doctors Union said 70 percent, or 39 out of 59 hospitals, in Khartoum and nearby jurisdictions had already had to cease operations. The World Health Organization warned then that the remaining hospitals were rapidly running out of blood, medical equipment and supplies.
