Crisis in Sudan: Current trigger, old faultlines, and the human cost, Pg14.

Key Highlights:

• On April 15, 2023, clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), under General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti), triggered a major crisis in Sudan.
• The conflict has reportedly caused over 150,000 deaths and displaced nearly 13 million Sudanese people, with 8.8 million internally displaced and 3.5 million fleeing across borders.
• Famine was officially confirmed in parts of Darfur in August 2024, especially in the Zamzam IDP camp.
• The SAF-RSF rivalry is rooted in historical, ethnic, and economic divides, with international actors allegedly providing covert support to both sides.

Sudan

Detailed Insights:

• The conflict evolved from a power struggle into a brutal civil war, devastating the nation’s economy and fracturing its society.
• Even before the war, over 3 million women and girls in Sudan were at risk of gender-based violence, which has been exacerbated by the current chaos.
• The RSF has origins in the Janjaweed militias involved in the Darfur conflict of the early 2000s, which has reignited ethnic mistrust and displacement.
• Control over fertile land, gold mines, and Red Sea trade routes has become a strategic prize, with the RSF controlling gold fields and the SAF controlling strategic ports.
• The ouster of Omar al-Bashir in 2019 initially sparked optimism for democratic change, but a military coup in 2021 dissolved the transitional government.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Internally Displaced Persons (IDP): Individuals who have been forced to leave their homes but remain within their country's borders.
• Gender-Based Violence: Violence directed against a person based on their gender, often disproportionately affecting women and girls.
• Proxy War: A conflict where opposing sides use third parties as substitutes instead of fighting each other directly.