Sudan

Sudan is at a catastrophic “breaking point,” with tens of thousands of preventable deaths looming due to multiple crises, the United Nations’ migration agency warned Monday. The International Organization for Migration said famine and floods were adding to a catalogue of challenges facing millions of people in the war-torn country, amid the world’s largest displacement crisis.

Secretary-General António Guterres expressed deep alarm at the evolving situation in El Fasher in North Darfur, Sudan, where fierce fighting in the famine-stricken area has been reported, his deputy spokesperson said late Sunday.

The Sudanese government launched a scathing attack on the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Wednesday, accusing it of undermining Sudan’s sovereignty by advocating for the delivery of humanitarian aid across conflict lines without the nation’s consent. … The Sudanese government has long accused the UAE of fuelling the conflict by supplying arms to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group battling the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).

Edem Wosornu of the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, and Stephen Omollo, Assistant Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), briefed ambassadors in the wake of the recent confirmation of famine in the Zamzam displacement camp, home to 500,000 people. Zamzam is located near El Fasher, capital of North Darfur state, and the Famine Review Committee also found that famine conditions are also likely present in other camps in and around the city.

Sudan's army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan struck a defiant tone on Wednesday after a drone hit an army base he was visiting in eastern Sudan, casting doubt on recent efforts to bring an end to the country's 15-month civil war. The attack took place at a graduation ceremony at the Gibeit army base, killing five people. 

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group has “terrorised” women and girls in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, and the adjacent cities of Omdurman and Bahri, committing acts of sexual violence that constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch has said in a new report.

Passports recovered from battlefields in Sudan suggest the United Arab Emirates is covertly putting boots on the ground in the country’s devastating civil war, according to leaked documents. A 41-page document, sent to the UN security council and seen by the Guardian, contains images of Emirati passports allegedly found in Sudan and linked to soldiers of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the African nation’s notorious paramilitary.

The 15-month war between Sudan's regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces "is being fuelled by an almost unimpeded supply of weapons into Sudan by states and corporate actors around the world," the rights watchdog said in their report.

[…] Blinken said in a statement issued Tuesday that Saudi Arabia will co-host the talks when they begin August 14, with representatives from the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, the African Union and the United Nations attending as observers.

Nearly 26 million people in war-torn Sudan are not getting enough to eat, the UN reported on Tuesday, citing its humanitarian affairs office, OCHA. “To give you an example, that is equivalent to the entire population of Australia,” UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told journalists attending his daily briefing in New York.