Silence. Last September, when I visited a makeshift hospital in Adré, Chad, where young Sudanese refugees were being treated for acute malnutrition, this is all I heard:
an eerie silence.
I had tried to prepare myself for the cries of sick, malnourished children, but these patients were too weak to even cry.
That day I saw a 6-month-old baby the size of a newborn and a toddler with swollen ankles and a blistered body due to severe malnutrition.
It was a horrifying and at the same time tragically familiar experience.
Twenty years earlier I had visited the same city and met Sudanese refugees fleeing the violence Darfurwhere the Janjawids, with the support of the brutal authoritarian regime of Omar al Bashirthey have carried out a genocidal campaign of mass murder, rape and pillage.
Amani Abdullah, 20, a Sudanese woman who fled conflict in Geneina, in Sudan’s Darfur region, mourns her husband, who she says was killed by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in their home, as she meets the rest of the family. family, after being transferred from makeshift shelters to a refugee camp in Ourang, on the outskirts of Adre, Chad. REUTERS/Zohra BensemraToday the civil war he turned Sudan into hell again.
But even after aid groups labeled the country’s humanitarian crisis as one of the worst in the world, the Sudanese people were given little attention or help.
For almost a year I have been pressuring the United Nations Security Council to issue a statement.
On 8 March the council finally called for an immediate cessation of hostilities.
It is a positive step, but not enough, and it does not change the fact that the international community and the media have remained in place silence.
The silence and inertia of the world must end and it must end now.
Action
The first thing we must do is increase humanitarian aid for the most vulnerable Sudanese.
18 million Sudanese suffer acute hunger and a famine is coming.
Nearly eight million people have been forced from their homes in what has become the world’s largest internal displacement crisis.
Preventable diseases such as measles and cholera have spread.
Since the beginning of the conflict, aid workers have been on the ground, often risking their lives to save others, but fighters on both sides of the war deliberately undermine their work.
The Sudanese military blocked the main passage of humanitarian aid from Chad to Darfur and members of their rival Rapid Support Forces. They loot the humanitarian warehouses.
Regional and global leaders must unequivocally and publicly demand that parties to conflicts respect international humanitarian law and facilitate access to humanitarian aid.
If the parties do not listen, the Security Council they must act quickly to ensure the delivery and distribution of life-saving aid.
The Council should consider all tools at its disposal, including allowing aid to move from Chad and South Sudan to Sudan, as the United Nations has done with cross-border aid flows to Syria.
The United States stands ready to help lead this initiative.
Guide
We also believe the United Nations should appoint a senior humanitarian official outside Sudan to support humanitarian access, expand aid efforts and mobilize international donors.
He World Food Programme has warned that if no new funds arrive, he will be forced to suspend food aid to hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees in Chad starting next month.
So far only a small part of the UN humanitarian appeal for Sudan has been fulfilled.
This is unacceptable.
The United States is the largest donor to both initiatives.
Now other countries need to step up.
The international community must also demand the protection of civilians and the pursuit of justice for victims of war crimes.
In the report on Law by Elie Wiesel In 2023, the Biden administration has warned of continued reports of large-scale human rights violations in Sudan.
And in December the Secretary of State Anthony Blinken it ruled that fighters on both sides had committed war crimes and that members of the Rapid Support Forces and allied paramilitary groups had committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.
Last month, when I visited the Sudanese border, I announced U.S. sanctions on leaders of paramilitary groups who have committed abuses against civilians, including conflict-related sexual violence and ethnic-based killings.
Since then, we have issued several other rounds of targeted sanctions.
We must break the cycle of impunity.
We must hold accountable those responsible for the horrors unfolding before our eyes, horrors that are documented, in appalling detail, in a recently released United Nations report.
Investigators found that women and girls, some as young as 14, were brutally raped by members of the Rapid Support Forces, that the group’s snipers indiscriminately attacked civilians, and that entire towns were burned and their inhabitants massacred, among other things. other atrocities.
Late last year, the report says, more than 1,000 Masalit and other non-Arab minorities were massacred in Ardamata, a city in West Darfur.
We must all support the ongoing research of International Criminal Court on allegations of war crimes in the region, local and international documentation initiatives, and other accountability actions.
International intervention
Finally, we must do everything in our power to stop the fighting and put Sudan back on the path to democracy.
Right now, a handful of regional powers are sending weapons to Sudan.
This external support is prolonging the conflict and facilitating atrocities committed in West Darfur, including massacres reminiscent of the 2004 genocide.
The Security Council has made clear that these illegal arms transfers, which violate the United Nations arms embargo, must stop.
This conflict will not be resolved on the battlefield.
The issue will be resolved at the negotiating table.
Those with influence, especially the African Union and the leaders of East Africa and the Persian Gulf, must guide the warring parties towards peace.
The Biden government continues to support these diplomatic efforts.
Just last month, Secretary Blinken appointed Tom Perriello, who has extensive experience in the region, as the U.S. special envoy to Sudan.
The United States is working to unite relevant actors around the common goal of prevent the disintegration of Sudanwhich would fuel instability across the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea region.
We are also working with courageous community leaders to push for a better future, where the Sudanese people can realize their aspirations for a democratically elected civilian government.
Through the sound of gunfire and bombing, the people of Sudan felt our silence.
They ask because we abandoned them, because we left them forgotten.
The international community must finally raise its voice and work together to put an end to this senseless conflict.
c.2024 The New York Times Company
Source: Clarin
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.