A United Nations report delivered to the UN Security Council Friday has found that between 10,000 and 15,000 people were killed last year in the city of El Geneina in the West Darfur region of Sudan. This exceeds the UN’s original estimate of 12,000 deaths following six months of ethnic violence committed by the country’s Paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and allied Arab militia against its Masalit minority.
In the report, UN monitors describe as “credible” accusations that the United Arab Emirates furnished military support to the RSF via northern Chad.
In response, a UAE spokesperson denied that the country was “supplying arms and ammunition to any of the warring parties” and claimed it does not favor either side.
A humanitarian crisis
One thing no one can deny is that Sudan is in crisis on multiple levels. Doctors Without Borders says half of Khartoum’s 6 million people have no access to healthcare. The city itself has descended into a lawless anarchy replete with sexual violence. And the displacement of farmers has left five million people at risk of starvation.
With the world’s focus divided between wars in Ukraine and Gaza, as well as geopolitical tensions between the US, China, Russia, and Iran, this fresh catastrophe in Sudan once again risks being ignored until it is too late.