UN Warns that 5 Million Face Starvation in Sudan (Gulf Nations and Darfur)
Kanako Mita, Sawako Utsumi, and Lee Jay Walker
Modern Tokyo Times
The United Nations is warning of a catastrophe in Sudan, with 5 million people facing severe food insecurity. Hence, appeals are being made concerning economic support and for the warring sides not to hinder humanitarian deliveries.
The World Food Programme (WFP) calls for unimpeded access to all areas blighted by food insecurity in war-torn Sudan – and for support to be provided to Chad. This concerns African Masalits who are fleeing ethnic cleansing and massacres by Arab Muslim militias allied to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
AFP reports, “The war between army chief Abdel Fattah Burhan and his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, has since April last year killed tens of thousands, destroyed infrastructure and crippled the economy.”
Of the 730,000 children suffering from severe malnutrition, nearly 250,000 are in the Darfur region.
The Guardian reports, “The violence in El Geneina and Ardamata has drawn parallels with the genocide of the mid-2000s, when Kalashnikov-wielding Arab militias called the Janjaweed crushed a rebellion by African groups in Darfur, killing an estimated 300,000. The RSF emerged out of the Janjaweed.”
Josep Borrell (European Union chief diplomat) said, “These latest atrocities are seemingly part of a wide ethnic-cleansing campaign conducted by the RSF with the aim to eradicate the non-Arab Masalit community from West Darfur.”
Martin Griffiths (U.N. Humanitarian Chief) said, “Almost 5 million people could slip into catastrophic food insecurity in some parts of the country in the coming months.”
Jill Lawler (UNICEF – Emergency Chief in Sudan) said, “The scale and magnitude of needs for children across the country are simply staggering…(the military conflict) is pushing the country towards a famine.”
UN News reports, “The senior UNICEF officer also described how women and girls who had been raped in the first months of war were now delivering babies. Some had been abandoned to the care of hospital staff, who had built a nursery near the delivery ward…”
GULF NATIONS
Wealthy Muslim Gulf nations need to step up and start to take in millions of Sudanese. It is known that slavery only ended in the land of Mecca in the 1960s – and with ethnic massacres in Darfur by Arab militias against African Masalits (and Arab Muslims branding Africans on the face in Libya) then racism persists throughout the Arab Muslim world – along with religious discrimination.
However, from a geopolitical and religious point of view, Gulf nations are near Sudan. Gulf nations are also wealthy and have greater infrastructures. Therefore, while images show millions of Muslims performing their religious pilgrimage to Mecca – and with Gulf nations buying football clubs and real estate for billions of dollars all the time – it is shocking that they don’t provide regional refugees with citizenship (European nations to Canada do more).
At the moment, 18 million people need humanitarian aid in Sudan – with vast numbers being children.
Several Peace talks have failed.
Hence, it is incumbent on Gulf nations to take in millions of refugees and ease the burden on Chad and South Sudan. Also, regional African nations, Gulf powers, and the international community must put greater pressure on both warring sides.
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