“Over a hundred Sudanese refugees have died or are missing after two consecutive shipwrecks off the coast of Libya at the weekend,” reports Middle East Eye.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) “announced on Wednesday that only 13 people survived after a vessel carrying 74 people, mostly Sudanese refugees, capsized on Saturday off the coast of the eastern Libyan town of Tobruk. Dozens remain missing, the UN body said.”
Middle East Eye notes that
The war in Sudan between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has forced more than 140,000 refugees into Libya in the past two years. Most of them enter via the land border in the Kufra area, in the southeast of the country controlled by eastern Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar.
Libya, which hosts around 867,055 people seeking asylum or a better life abroad, has emerged as a major transit route for migrants and refugees from sub-Saharan Africa fleeing war and poverty in their countries and seeking to reach Europe clandestinely.
Libya is located approximately 300km from the Italian coast on the west side and 500km from Greece on the east.
A cholera epidemic struck Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, which was once inhabited by millions of people.
A militia called the Rapid Support Forces occupied most of the capital for over a year, and stole most of Khartoum’s copper wiring and destroyed its energy infrastructure. Because utilities can’t provide power, many residents are using solar panels to power their light bulbs and TVs. Temperatures in Khartoum reached 100 degrees today, but there is basically no air conditioning there.
Because the capital city of Khartoum is so ruined, Sudan’s officials moved to Port Sudan, which became Sudan’s de facto capital during the civil war. But earlier this year, the RSF militia sent drones to attack Port Sudan, targeting its fuel depots. “The explosions at the fuel depots left Port Sudan without the diesel used to power the pumps that bring up the groundwater.” As a result, many people there ended up thirsty and stinky.
More than 14 million people in Sudan have been driven from their homes by fighting in the civil war, including at least 4 million people who fled into neighboring countries, including two of the world’s most backward countries, South Sudan and Chad, which have recurring civil wars of their own. Sudan is experiencing famine in five locations, such as the Darfur region, where the RSF committed genocide against the Masalit people who predominated in West Darfur state.
