Latest news with #Khartoum
The Independent
39 minutes ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Sudan civil war overwhelms border town in neighbor Chad as refugees find little help
Fatima Omas Abdullah wakes up every morning with aches and pains from sleeping on bare ground for almost two years. She did not expect Sudan 's civil war to displace her for so long into neighboring Chad. 'There is nothing here,' she said, crying and shaking the straw door of her makeshift home. Since April 2023, she has been in the Adre transit camp a few hundred meters from the Sudanese border, along with almost a quarter-million others fleeing the fighting. Now the U.S.- backed aid system that kept hundreds of thousands like Abdullah alive on the edge of one of the world's most devastating wars is fraying. Under the Trump administration, key foreign aid has been slashed and funding withdrawn from United Nations programs that feed, treat and shelter refugees. In 2024, the U.S. contributed $39.3 million to the emergency response in Chad. So far this year, it has contributed about $6.8 million, the U.N. says. Overall, only 13% of the requested money to support refugees in Chad this year has come in from all donors, according to U.N. data. In Adre, humanitarian services were already limited as refugees are meant to move to more established camps deeper inside Chad. Many Sudanese, however, choose to stay. Some are heartened by the military's recent successes against rival paramilitary forces in the capital, Khartoum. They have swelled the population of this remote, arid community that was never meant to hold so many. Prices have shot up. Competition over water is growing. Adre isn't alone. As the fighting inside Sudan's remote Darfur region shifts, the stream of refugees has created a new, more isolated transit camp called Tine. Since late April, 46,000 people have arrived. With the aid cuts, there is even less to offer them there. 235,000 Sudanese in a border town Adre has become a fragile frontline for an estimated 235,000 Sudanese. They are among the 1.2 million who have fled into eastern Chad. Before the civil war, Adre was a town of about 40,000. As Sudanese began to arrive, sympathetic residents with longtime cross-border ties offered them land. Now there is a sea of markets and shelters, along with signs of Sudanese intending to stay. Some refugees are constructing multi-story buildings. Sudanese-run businesses form one of Adre's largest markets. Locals and refugees barter in Sudanese pounds for everything from produce to watches. 'There is respect between the communities,' said resident Asadiq Hamid Abdullah, who runs a donkey cart. 'But everyone is complaining that the food is more expensive.' Chad is one of the world's poorest countries, with almost 50% of the population living below the poverty line. Locals say the price of water has quadrupled since the start of Sudan's civil war as demand rises. Sudanese women told The Associated Press that fights had broken out at the few water pumps for them, installed by the International Committee of the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders. Even food aid could run out shortly. The U.N. World Food Program says funding to support Sudanese refugees in Adre is guaranteed only until July, as the U.S. aid cuts force a 30% reduction in staff worldwide. The U.N. refugee agency has seen 30% of its funding cut for this area, eastern Chad. Samia Ahmed, who cradled her 3-year-old and was pregnant with her second child, said she has found work cleaning and doing laundry because the WFP rations don't last the month. 'I see a gloomy future,' she said. Sudanese try to fill aid gaps Sudanese are trying to fill gaps in aid, running private schools and their own humanitarian area with a health clinic and women's center. Local and U.N. authorities, however, are increasing the pressure on them to leave Adre. There are too many people here, they say. 'A vast city,' said Hamit Hadjer Abdullai with Chad's National Commission for the Reception and Reintegration of Refugees. He said crime was increasing. Police warn of the Colombians, a Sudanese gang. Locals said it operates with impunity, though Abdullai claimed that seven leaders have been jailed. ' People must move,' said Benoit Kayembe Mukendi, the U.N. refugee agency's local representative. 'For security reasons and for their protection.' As the Chadian population begins to demand their land back, Mukendi warned of a bigger security issue ahead. But most Sudanese won't go. The AP spoke to dozens who said they had been relocated to camps and returned to Adre to be closer to their homeland and the transit camp's economic opportunities. There are risks. Zohal Abdullah Hamad was relocated but returned to run a coffee stand. One day, a nearby argument escalated and gunfire broke out. Hamad was shot in the gut. 'I became cold. I was immobile,' she said, crying as she recalled the pain. She said she has closed her business. The latest Sudanese arrivals to Adre have no chance to establish themselves. On the order of local authorities, they are moved immediately to other camps. The U.N. said it is transporting 2,000 of them a day. In Tine, arriving Sudanese find nothing The new and rapidly growing camp of Tine, around 180 kilometers (111 miles) north of Adre, has seen 46,000 refugees arrive since late April from Northern Darfur. Their sheer numbers caused a U.N. refugee representative to gasp. Thousands jostle for meager portions of food distributed by community kitchens. They sleep on the ground in the open desert, shaded by branches and strips of fabric. They bring witness accounts of attacks in Zamzam and El-Fasher: rape, robbery, relatives shot before their eyes. With the U.S. aid cuts, the U.N. and partners cannot respond as before, when people began to pour into Adre after the start of the war, U.N representative Jean Paul Habamungu Samvura said. 'If we have another Adre here … it will be a nightmare.' ___ For more on Africa and development: The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at
Malay Mail
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Malay Mail
US slaps Sudan with sanctions over chemical attacks — here's what we know
PORT SUDAN, June 29 — The US State Department imposed sanctions on the Sudanese government Friday, accusing it of using chemical weapons last year in its war against rival paramilitaries. Since April 2023, the war between the army and the Rapid Support Forces has drawn widespread accusations of war crimes, with the US determining in January the RSF had committed genocide. Sanctions The State Department in May notified Congress of its determination that 'the Government of Sudan used chemical weapons in 2024', in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention, which Khartoum ratified in 1999. Washington did not provide details on where or when the chemical attacks occurred. Sudan's army-aligned government immediately denied the US allegations, calling them 'baseless' and 'political blackmail'. Washington's sanctions, initially intended to go into effect on June 6, restrict US exports and financing. Urgent humanitarian aid will be exempted from the sanctions on Sudan, where nearly 25 million people are suffering dire food insecurity in the world's largest hunger crisis. History of accusations In January, the New York Times reported the Sudanese army had used chemical weapons at least twice in the war, citing four anonymous senior US officials. They said the chemical agent used, with the direct approval of army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, was chlorine. The army, which has been in control of Sudan for most of its post-independence history since 1956, has been accused of carrying out chemical attacks before. In 2016, an Amnesty International investigation accused the army — then allied with the RSF — of using chemical weapons on civilians in the western region of Darfur. Khartoum denied the accusations. In 1998, the US claimed the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum was producing chemical components for Al-Qaeda, before destroying the factory in a missile attack. Past sanctions Relations between the US and Sudan were strained for decades under the rule of Omar al-Bashir, who came to power in 1993 and whose Islamist-military rule was long accused of supporting terrorism. US sanctions imposed in the early 1990s were tightened in 2006 following accusations of genocide in the Darfur region, carried out on behalf of Khartoum by the RSF's predecessor militia, the Janjaweed. After a popular uprising ousted Bashir in 2019, the US removed Sudan from its list of state sponsors of terrorism and began to lift sanctions. Some were reintroduced following a 2021 coup, led by Burhan alongside his then-deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, before the allies' power struggle erupted into all-out war in April 2023. By January 2025, the US had imposed sanctions on both Burhan and Daglo, who is commonly known as Hemeti. Efforts at mediation, including by the Biden administration, have repeatedly failed to produce a ceasefire. Expected impact Sudanese civilians have long borne the brunt of sanctions on their country. Both Burhan and Hemeti's camps built considerable wealth while under a decades-long sanctions regime, finessing transnational financial networks while the country was left underdeveloped. Today, Africa's third largest country is suffering what the UN calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with over 10 million people internally displaced and famine already declared in parts of the country. The US was Sudan's largest donor in 2024, contributing 44.4 per cent of the UN's US$2 billion (RM8.46 billion) humanitarian response plan. Following US President Donald Trump's suspension of most foreign aid, the US has dropped its contribution by nearly 80 per cent. US exports were valued at US$56.6 million in 2024, according to data from the US Census Bureau. — AFP
Yahoo
16 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Driven to starvation, Sudanese people eat weeds and plants to survive as war rages
CAIRO (AP) — With Sudan in the grips of war and millions struggling to find enough to eat, many are turning to weeds and wild plants to quiet their pangs of hunger. They boil the plants in water with salt because, simply, there is nothing else. Grateful for the lifeline it offered, a 60-year-old retired school teacher penned a love poem about a plant called Khadija Koro. It was "a balm for us that spread through the spaces of fear,' he wrote, and kept him and many others from starving. A.H, who spoke on the condition his full name not be used, because he feared retribution from the warring parties for speaking to the press, is one of 24.6 million people in Sudan facing acute food insecurity —nearly half the population, according to the I ntegrated Food Security Phase Classification. Aid workers say the war spiked market prices, limited aid delivery, and shrunk agricultural lands in a country that was once a breadbasket of the world. Sudan plunged into war in April 2023 when simmering tensions between the Sudanese army and its rival paramilitary the Rapid Support Forces escalated to fighting in the capital Khartoum and spread across the country, killing over 20,000 people, displacing nearly 13 million people, and pushing many to the brink of famine in what aid workers deemed the world's largest hunger crisis. Food insecurity is especially bad in areas in the Kordofan region, the Nuba Mountains, and Darfur, where El Fasher and Zamzam camp are inaccessible to the Norwegian Refugee Council, said Mathilde Vu, an aid worker with the group based in Port Sudan. Some people survive on just one meal a day, which is mainly millet porridge. In North Darfur, some people even sucked on coal to ease their hunger. On Friday, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the Sudanese military leader Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan and asked him for a week-long ceasefire in El Fasher to allow aid delivery. Burhan agreed to that request, according to an army statement, but it's unknown whether the RSF would agree to that truce. A.H. said aid distribution often provided slight relief. His wife in children live in Obeid and also struggle to secure enough food due to high prices in the market. His poem continued: 'You were a world that sends love into the barren time. You were a woman woven from threads of the sun. You were the sandalwood and the jasmine and a revelation of green, glowing and longing." Fighting restricted travel, worsening food insecurity Sudanese agricultural minister Abu Bakr al-Bashari told Al-Hadath news channel in April that there are no indicators of famine in the country, but there is shortage of food supplies in areas controlled by the paramilitary forces, known as RSF. However, Leni Kinzli, World Food Programme Sudan spokesperson, said 17 areas in Gezeira, most of the Darfur region, and Khartoum, including Jebel Aulia are at risk of famine. Each month, over 4 million people receive assistance from the group, including 1.7 million in areas facing famine or at risk, Kinzli said. The state is suffering from two conflicts: one between the Rapid Support Forces and the army, and another with the People's Liberation Movement-North, who are fighting against the army and have ties with the RSF, making it nearly impossible to access food, clean water, or medicine. He can't travel to Obeid in North Kordofan to be with his family, as the Rapid Support Forces blocked roads. Violence and looting have made travel unsafe, forcing residents to stay in their neighborhoods, limiting their access to food, aid workers said. A.H. is supposed to get a retirement pension from the government, but the process is slow, so he doesn't have a steady income. He can only transfer around $35 weekly to his family out of temporary training jobs, which he says is not enough. Hassan, another South Kordofan resident in Kadugli said that the state has turned into a 'large prison for innocent citizens' due to the lack of food, water, shelter, income, and primary health services caused by the RSF siege. International and grassroots organizations in the area where he lives were banned by the local government, according to Hassan, who asked to be identified only by his first name in fear of retribution for speaking publicly while being based in an area often engulfed with fighting. So residents ate the plants out of desperation. 'You would groan to give life an antidote when darkness appeared to us through the window of fear.,' A.H. wrote in his poem. "You were the light, and when our tears filled up our in the eyes, you were the nectar. Food affordability Vu warned that food affordability is another ongoing challenge as prices rise in the markets. A physical cash shortage prompted the Norwegian Refugee Council to replace cash assistance with vouchers. Meanwhile, authorities monopolize some markets and essential foods such as corn, wheat flour, sugar and salt are only sold through security approvals, according to Hassan. Meanwhile, in southwest Sudan, residents of Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, rely on growing crops, but agricultural lands are shrinking due to fighting and lack of farming resources. Hawaa Hussein, a woman who has been displaced in El Serif camp since 2004, told the AP that they benefit from the rainy season but they're lacking essential farming resources such as seeds and tractors to grow beans, peanuts, sesame, wheat, and weika — dried powdered okra. Hussein, a grandmother living with eight family members, said her family receives a food parcel every two months, containing lentils, salt, oil, and biscuits. Sometimes she buys items from the market with the help of community leaders. 'There are many families in the camp, mine alone has five children, and so aid is not enough for everyone … you also can't eat while your neighbor is hungry and in need,' she said. El Serif camp is sheltering nearly 49,000 displaced people, the camp's civic leader Abdalrahman Idris told the AP. Since the war began in 2023, the camp has taken in over 5,000 new arrivals, with a recent surge coming from the greater Khartoum region, which is the Sudanese military said it took full control of in May. 'The food that reaches the camp makes up only 5% of the total need. Some people need jobs and income. People now only eat two meals, and some people can't feed their children,' he said. In North Darfur, south of El Fasher, lies Zamzam camp, one of the worst areas struck by famine and recent escalating violence. An aid worker with the Emergency Response Rooms previously based in the camp who asked not to be identified in fear of retribution for speaking with the press, told the AP that the recent wave of violence killed some and left others homeless. Barely anyone was able to afford food from the market as a pound of sugar costs 20,000 Sudanese pounds ($33) and a soap bar 10,000 Sudanese pounds ($17). The recent attacks in Zamzam worsened the humanitarian situation and he had to flee to a safer area. Some elderly men, pregnant women, and children have died of starvation and the lack of medical treatment, according to an aid worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he's fearful of retribution for speaking publicly while living in an area controlled by one of the warring parties. He didn't provide the exact number of those deaths. He said the situation in Zamzam camp is dire—'as if people were on death row.' Yet A.H. finished his poem with hope: 'When people clashed and death filled the city squares' A.H. wrote 'you, Koro, were a symbol of life and a title of loyalty.'
South China Morning Post
17 hours ago
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
US imposes sanctions on Sudan over alleged use of chemical weapons
The US State Department imposed sanctions on the Sudanese government on Friday, accusing it of using chemical weapons last year in its war against rival paramilitaries. Advertisement Since April 2023, the war between the army and the Rapid Support Forces has drawn widespread accusations of war crimes, with the US determining in January that the RSF had committed genocide. The State Department in May notified Congress of its determination that 'the Government of Sudan used chemical weapons in 2024', in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention, which Khartoum ratified in 1999. Washington did not provide details on where or when the chemical attacks occurred. Sudan's army-aligned government immediately denied the US allegations, calling them 'baseless' and 'political blackmail'. Advertisement Washington's sanctions, initially intended to go into effect on June 6, restrict US exports and financing.
Al Arabiya
17 hours ago
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
US sanctions on Sudan over alleged chemical weapons use take effect
US sanctions on Sudan's government -- imposed over what Washington says was the use by Khartoum's military of chemical weapons in the country's bloody civil war last year -- have taken effect. The sanctions -- which include restrictions on US exports, arms sales and financing to the government in Khartoum -- are to remain in place for at least one year, the US government said in a notice published Friday in the Federal Register. Assistance to Sudan will be terminated 'except for urgent humanitarian assistance and food or other agricultural commodities or products,' it said. However, certain measures will be partially waived because 'it is essential to the national security interests of the United States' to do so, it added. 'The United States calls on the Government of Sudan to cease all chemical weapons use and uphold its obligations' under the Chemical Weapons Convention, an international treaty signed by nearly all countries that prohibits their use, the State Department said last month when it announced the sanctions. The New York Times reported in January that Sudan's military had used chemical weapons on at least two occasions in remote areas its war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Citing anonymous US officials, the newspaper said that the weapon appeared to be chlorine gas, which can cause severe respiratory pain and death. Khartoum has denied using chemical weapons. In practical terms, the effect will be limited as both Sudan's military chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his adversary and former deputy, RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, are already under US sanctions. A power struggle between the army and RSF erupted into full-scale war in April 2023 with devastating consequences for the already impoverished country. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced 13 million, creating what the United Nations describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
