• Darfur has been disproportionately impacted by the ongoing 2023 Sudanese Civil War.
• The UN World Food Program has recently delivered aid into the region, but the stakes are extremely high nonetheless.
The United Nations World Food Programme (UN WFP) has reached the Darfur region of Sudan for the first time in months.
Whilst the majority of international observers are understandably occupied by the catastrophic consequences of Israel’s war on Gaza, the unfolding civil war currently tearing up Sudan has remained out of sight and out of mind for most in the western world.
Since April of 2023, the Sudanese Civil War has claimed 15,000 casualties (mostly civilians) and has created over 2 million refugees as well as approximately almost 7 million internally displaced Sudanese.
The ethnically and culturally distinct western region of Darfur, has long been ravaged by the excesses of war and inhumane brutality even prior to April last year has been hit particularly hard by the current civil war.
Academics and media outlets such as Genocide Watch have revealed evidence of an unfolding genocide carried out by the hands of the Rapid Support Forces, a coalition of paramilitary groups owing allegiance to a warlord who is eager to be the next ruler of Sudan. The man in question, Mohammad Hamdan Dagalo better known as Hemedti commands a band of bloodthirsty gunman who are complicit in genocide and war crimes.
In November last year, 800-1300 members of the Masalit ethnic group were systematically butchered by the RSF in Ardamata in Darfur.
The UN reported that people in North Darfur are struggling to get their fingertips on even one meal a day.
In late March two convoys loaded with humanitarian aid crossed the border from Chad into Darfur. A total of 37 trucks delivered 1,300 tonnes of supplies to north, western and central Darfur.
According to the UN the delivery carried enough to supply 250,000 people facing acute hunger with food. At the same time however, the UN maintains that the delivery will not be enough and warned that unless a constant flow of aid was delivered “the hunger catastrophe would only worsen.”
