5-11 October Sudan News Summary: refugees return, El Fasher suffers, women and children pay the price of war

18 Oct

Arabic news roundup

By William Greenwood

The United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Thursday that the number of returnees to their homes in Sudan has risen to more than 2.6 million in less than a year.
The return of Sudanese to their areas was linked to the army's recapture of Sennar, Gezira, Khartoum, and other areas in the White Nile and North Kordofan states as of the end of the previous year.
It indicated that 2,094,516 of the total returnees were internally displaced persons, while the remaining 523,844 returned from Egypt, South Sudan, and Libya.
1,038,890 Sudanese returned to Khartoum, while 973,000 returned to Gezira, Sennar received 194,000 returnees, with an additional 168,000 returned to Blue Nile, 102,000 to North Darfur, 36,000 to Nile River, and 97,000 to the White Nile.

The humanitarian situation in El Fasher is deteriorating sharply amid fears that the takiyas (charity centres), which thousands of civilians rely on for their daily food, will cease operations amid a lack of food supplies and rising prices.
A citizen confirmed in an interview that the humanitarian situation in the city is worsening with the lack of food supplies and the closure of most takiyas, pointing out that civilians continue to be displaced from the city daily.
A volunteer said that civilians in El Fasher are facing difficulties in obtaining food and drinking water and rely on the takiyas, which face security challenges such as artillery shelling, a lack of food supplies, and rising prices.
It is expected that all takiyas will be out of service in the coming days if new food supplies do not arrive.
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has warned of a dangerous escalation in violence against civilians in El Fasher.

By Samuel Hunt

A harrowing BBC News report from Khartoum outlines the costs of drone strikes on children and how families cannot afford the medical treatment, such as prosthetics.
Children across the country have lost their homes, their schools, and some of them their families.
Children in the report spoke about being soldiers when they are older so that they can fight for their country.
Reports have come in that at least 17 children, including an infant just seven days old, were killed in the attack on the Dar al-Arqam Displacement Centre in El Fasher, North Darfur, on Saturday 11th October.
“This devastating attack on children and families who were already displaced and seeking safety is an outrage,” said Catherine Russell, UNICEF Executive Director.

In besieged El Fasher, 20% of children under five in the city are acutely malnourished, and 38% of pregnant or lactating women face malnutrition, raising serious risks for mothers and newborns.
Civilians in El Fasher report that over 90 % of homes have been destroyed, damaged or looted before people fled, and many are forced to relocate repeatedly under constant threat of drone or artillery attack.
Meanwhile in southern Sudan, advances by the SAF capturing strategic towns like Bara threaten to choke supply lines into Darfur, further imperilling civilian access to aid, health services and safe routes for displaced families.
The humanitarian crisis is severe: more than 24 million people face acute food insecurity and 19 million lack access to safe water and sanitation. These conditions disproportionately affect children and women.
Sudan’s displaced are in homes, not just camps – and aid keeps missing them.
“We must stop searching for a crisis that fits existing models and start designing responses that fit the crisis we actually have,” says Greeballah Mohamed, a Sudanese medical doctor and humanitarian worker writing in The New Humanitarian.

Bill Greenwood