UN: Half of Sudan's Population Needs Urgent Humanitarian Assistance

Displaced people who fled the conflict in the Darfur region inside the Adre temporary camp in Chad (Reuters)
Displaced people who fled the conflict in the Darfur region inside the Adre temporary camp in Chad (Reuters)
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UN: Half of Sudan's Population Needs Urgent Humanitarian Assistance

Displaced people who fled the conflict in the Darfur region inside the Adre temporary camp in Chad (Reuters)
Displaced people who fled the conflict in the Darfur region inside the Adre temporary camp in Chad (Reuters)

The UN said that about half of the population of Sudan, about 20 million people, are in need of urgent humanitarian aid.

The UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS) confirmed in a press circular on its Facebook page that the number of internally and externally displaced persons due to the conflict has risen to 3.3 million.

The ongoing battles between the Sudanese Army and the Rapid Support Forces hinder the arrival of humanitarian aid to thousands of civilians stranded in conflict areas in Khartoum, Darfur, and Kordofan.

The two warring parties did not abide by the Declaration of Principles and the truce and cease-fire agreements signed in Jeddah with Saudi-US mediation, which include humanitarian arrangements for delivering aid and protecting civilians and aid workers.

Thousands of Sudanese suffer from catastrophic humanitarian conditions, and over half of the hospitals and medical facilities are out of order in Khartoum following the attacks and clashes.

On Thursday, 16 people were killed and dozens of civilians injured in a drone attack by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), according to the families of the victims, who described the incident as a "horrific massacre."

Witnesses told Asharq Al-Awsat that the massacre occurred after citizens gathered to celebrate and salute the army forces after clashes with RSF in the al-Azouzab suburb in Khartoum. They reported that a drone targeted the gathering, and the number of victims is expected to increase.

The Sudanese army stated that the RSF targeted citizens who gathered to greet the forces, killing 14 civilians and wounding 15 civilians.

- Clashes in Khartoum

Khartoum, Omdurman, and Bahri witnessed many bloody clashes, resulting in the killing and wounding of hundreds of citizens due to the exchanged bombardment and artillery shelling between the two warring parties.

On Thursday, air strikes, street battles, and artillery fire shook the major southern city of el-Obeid, witnesses told AFP.

A resident of El-Obeid told the agency that artillery shelling targeted paramilitary bases of the Rapid Support Forces. Army jets were striking paramilitaries responding with anti-aircraft fire, said another El-Obeid resident.

Since its outbreak on April 15, the war between the army commander, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and his former deputy, the RSF commander, Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, killed at least 3,000 people and displaced over 3.3 million.

Burhan appeared Tuesday in rare video footage shortly after an audio recording of Daglo was released.

In the video clip, Burhan is seen in the army headquarters as he greets the army top brass.

The headquarters of the army's general command in central Khartoum is still witnessing clashes, and Al-Burhan has stayed in this headquarters since the start of the war.

Neither side has confirmed complete control of the headquarters yet.

Daglo was last seen in a short video clip the paramilitaries shot in the early days of the conflict. Since then, he has only released audio recordings, and it is widely rumored that he was killed or even injured in the battles.

Meanwhile, relief organizations and other international groups confirmed the occurrence of atrocities in Darfur, including sexual violence.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has opened a new probe into alleged war crimes in Darfur, its chief prosecutor Karim Khan said last week.

He warned against "allowing history to repeat itself" in Darfur, where 300,000 people were killed in a conflict in 2003.



Anxiety Clouds Easter for West Bank Christians

Residents of the West Bank town of Zababdeh say its church bells are often drowned out by the roar of Israeli air force jets headed for action nearby. - AFP
Residents of the West Bank town of Zababdeh say its church bells are often drowned out by the roar of Israeli air force jets headed for action nearby. - AFP
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Anxiety Clouds Easter for West Bank Christians

Residents of the West Bank town of Zababdeh say its church bells are often drowned out by the roar of Israeli air force jets headed for action nearby. - AFP
Residents of the West Bank town of Zababdeh say its church bells are often drowned out by the roar of Israeli air force jets headed for action nearby. - AFP

In the mainly Christian Palestinian town of Zababdeh, the runup to Easter has been overshadowed by nearby Israeli military operations, which have proliferated in the occupied West Bank alongside the Gaza war.

This year unusually Easter falls on the same weekend for all of the town's main Christian communities -- Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican --- and residents have attempted to busy themselves with holiday traditions like making date cakes or getting ready for the scout parade.

But their minds have been elsewhere.

Dozens of families from nearby Jenin have found refuge in Zababdeh from the continual Israeli military operations that have devastated the city and its adjacent refugee camp this year.

"The other day, the (Israeli) army entered Jenin, people were panicking, families were running to pick up their children," said Zababdeh resident Janet Ghanam.

"There is a constant fear, you go to bed with it, you wake up with it," the 57-year-old Anglican added, before rushing off to one of the last Lenten prayers before Easter.

Ghanam said her son had told her he would not be able to visit her for Easter this year, for fear of being stuck at the Israeli military roadblocks that have mushroomed across the territory.

Zabadeh's Anglican church was busy in the runup to Easter but across the West Bank Christian communities have been in sharp decline as people emigrate in search of a better life abroad.

Zabadeh looks idyllic, nestled in the hills of the northern West Bank, but the roar of Israeli air force jets sometimes drowns out the sound of its church bells.

"It led to a lot of people to think: 'Okay, am I going to stay in my home for the next five years?'" said Saleem Kasabreh, an Anglican deacon in the town.

"Would my home be taken away? Would they bomb my home?"

- 'Existential threat' -

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and in recent months far-right ministers in its coalition government have called for the annexation of swathes of the territory.

Kasabreh said this "existential threat" was compounded by constant "depression" at the news from Gaza, where the death toll from the Israel's response to Hamas's October 2023 attack now tops 51,000, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

Work has been hard to find for Zababdeh's mainly Christian residents since Israel rescinded Palestinian work permits following the October 2023 attack by Hamas that sparked the Gaza war.

Zababdeh has been spared the devastation wreaked on Gaza, but the mayor's office says nearly 450 townspeople lost their jobs in Israel when Palestinian work permits were rescinded after the Hamas attack.

"Israel had never completely closed us in the West Bank before this war," said 73-year-old farmer Ibrahim Daoud. "Nobody knows what will happen".

Many say they are stalked by the spectre of exile, with departures abroad fuelling fears that Christians may disappear from the Holy Land.

"People can't stay without work and life isn't easy," said 60-year-old maths teacher Tareq Ibrahim.

Mayor Ghassan Daibes echoed his point.

"For a Christian community to survive, there must be stability, security and decent living conditions. It's a reality, not a call for emigration," he said.

"But I´m speaking from lived experience: Christians used to make up 30 percent of the population in Palestine; today, they are less than one percent.

"And this number keeps decreasing. In my own family, I have three brothers abroad -- one in Germany, the other two in the United States."

Catholic priest Father Elias Tabban insists the hard times his congregation has been going though have deepened their faith.

Catholic priest Elias Tabban adopted a more stoical attitude, insisting his congregation's spirituality had never been so vibrant.

"Whenever the Church is in hard times... (that's when) you see the faith is growing," Tabban said.