LONDON, Apr 21 (IPS) – The current fighting in Sudan marks the failure of supposed processes for transition to democratic rule. The international community needs to learn the lessons of this catastrophe and work with civil society.
Democracy betrayed
On one side is the army, headed by Sudan’s current leader, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. On the other are the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commonly known as Hemedti. Both sides blame the other and say they will refuse to negotiate.
The two worked together in the October 2021 coup that overthrew a transitional government, put in place in August 2019 after long-time dictator Omar al-Bashir was ousted following a popular uprising. They were never committed to democracy. Military forces initially tried to suppress democracy protests with lethal violence. The grimmest day came on 3 June 2019, when the RSF ended a sit-in with indiscriminate gunfire, killing over 100 people. There has been no accountability for the violence.
The October 2021 military coup, which brought mass protests and civil disobedience, was followed by a short-lived and palpably insincere attempt at a civilian-military power-sharing deal that only lasted from November 2021 to January 2022. Protests, and military violence against them, continued. December 2022 saw the signing of a deal between the military and some civilian groups.
This deal was supposed to kickstart a two-year transition to democracy. Some pro-democracy groups and political parties rejected the plan, but the international community urged all sides to get behind it.
The army was already seeking to backtrack on its commitments before the fighting began. Now those who doubted the sincerity of the two forces’ intentions and willingness to hand over power have been proved right.
Civilians in the firing line
Relations between the two military leaders had become increasingly strained, and fighting finally broke out on 15 April. Attempts at a humanitarian ceasefire have so far come to nothing.
Civilians are in the firing line. There’s much confusion on the ground, making it hard to get accurate numbers of casualties, but currently over 300 civilians are reported killed, with thousands injured.
Khartoum’s major sites of contestation, such as the airport and military bases, nestle side by side with civilian housing, leaving people vulnerable to airstrikes. People are stuck in their homes and at workplaces with limited supplies of food, and water and electricity have been cut. Some have had their homes seized by RSF soldiers. Thousands have fled.
Many hospitals have been forced to evacuate or are running out of vital supplies, and there are reports of attacks on health facilities. There are also reports that UN staff and other aid workers are being targeted and offices of humanitarian organisations have been looted.
A battle for power
The origins of the current crisis lie in al-Bashir’s deployment of paramilitary forces, the Janjaweed, to brutally crush a rebellion in Darfur in 2003. The violence was such that al-Bashir remains subject to an International Criminal Court arrest warrant on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
In recognition of its brutal effectiveness, al-Bashir formally reorganised the Janjaweed into the RSF. It suited him to have two forces he could play off against each other, although ultimately they worked together to oust him. The tensions that have built since partly reflect a clash of cultures between the two leaders and Hemedti’s evident ambition for the top job.
But mostly it’s a competition for political and economic supremacy. The army has always been the power behind the presidency, and it’s said to control major companies, having taken over many businesses once owned by al-Bashir and his inner circle.
Hemedti has his own sources of wealth, including illegal gold mining – something that connects him with Russia, with mercenary forces from the shadowy Wagner Group reportedly guarding goldmines in return for gold exports to Russia. Now Wagner is allegedly supplying the RSF with missiles.
Hemedti had positioned himself as supportive of transitional processes, a ruse that enabled him to dispute the army’s power. Al-Burhan was always a compromised figure, supposedly leading Sudan through transition while also defending the army’s extensive interests. Proposals to integrate the two forces appear to have been the final straw, threatening to erode Hemedti’s power base, making this an existential struggle.
International failure
Democratic states that backed the transition plan wanted to believe in it and basically hoped for the best.
Self-interest has never been far away from the calculations of outside forces either. In recent years, EU funding indirectly found its way to the RSF for its border control role, helping prevent people making their way to Europe; the EU’s preoccupation with controlling migration trumped democracy and human rights concerns.
The Egyptian government, an influential player in Sudan, is meanwhile squarely behind al-Burhan: it wants its domestic model of repressive government by a military strongman applied in its southern neighbour. Russia strongly backs Hemedti, while Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates might have no strong preference between the two as long as the outcome isn’t democracy.
What all the approaches taken have in common is that they’re largely top-down, investing faith in leaders while failing to address the tensions that led to violence. Now the limitations of that approach should be evident.
Sudan’s democracy movement has been consistently ignored. But people don’t want their futures to come down to a dismal choice of two warlords. This conflict must put an end to any notion that either military head can be expected to lead a transition to democracy.
Democratic states need to hold a stronger line on demanding not only that the conflict ends but that a genuine, civilian-led transition follows. With this must come accountability for violence.
From now on, the outside world must listen to and be guided by Sudanese civil society voices – in restoring peace, and in bringing about democracy.
Activists from Freedom and Roam Uganda launch LGBTQI+ campaigns, My Body is Not a Battlefield and Break the Chains, Stop Violence campaigns. Credit: Wambi Michael/IPS
by Wambi Michael (kampala)
Inter Press Service
KAMPALA, Apr 21 (IPS) – The mothers of LGBTQ+ individuals in Uganda have taken a stand against Bill passed by the Ugandan Parliament proposing the death penalty for aggravated homosexuality, life imprisonment for the “offense of homosexuality,” and up to 20 years in jail for promoting homosexuality.
This stance is considered rare for Uganda and Africa, where Human Rights Watch says 33 countries still criminalize homosexuality. And there is concern that because of the success of the Ugandan Bill, other African countries could be encouraged to intensify targeting the anti-LGBTQ+ community.
Mawethu Nkosana Nkolomba, the Crisis Response Fund Lead/LGBTI Advocacy Lead at CIVICUS, told IPS that the passing of the Bill in Uganda was not an isolated incident. “There is a threat of LGBTI civil society groups being targeted soon in Kenya, and because of what just happened in Uganda, there are fears of the LGBTI bill coming back in full force. Niger – has a similar bill being tabled.”
“So is Tanzania – the targeting of LGBTI and feminist groups are under target (anal testing), Ghana – has a similar bill as Uganda, Burundi – (is experiencing) a new wave of arrests of LGBTI groups, the situation of LGBTI groups in Tunisia and Algeria is worsening, in Egypt, police are using queer apps to target the LGBTI community – so definitely there is a trend,” Nkolomba says in an interview with IPS.
Activist Eric Ndaula says the issue is that homophobia is a pervasive mindset – with politicians, religious leaders, and even family taking a stance against it. “They tell us that homosexuality is wrong; it’s an abomination.”
When the Ugandan Parliament passed the Bill on March 21, 2023, without asking for anonymity, Jane Nasimbwa, Sylvia Nassuna, Janet Ndagire, Patricia Naava, Jackie Nabbosa Mpungu, Florence Matovu Kansanze, Josephine Amonyatta, and Shamim Nakamate openly identified themselves as mothers of LGBTQ+ individuals.
Their “Open Letter to President Museveni from Mothers of LGBTQ+ Individuals,” – republished by the Monitor, surprised many.
“As parents of LGBTQ+ individuals, we are not ‘promoters’ of any agenda; we are Ugandan mothers, who have had to overcome many of our own biases to fully understand, accept, and love our children,” reads the letter.
The women expressed fear that their children were likely to be targets of mob violence, which they noted was a direct consequence of living in a country whose legislators are “recklessly” legalizing homophobia and transphobia with the Anti-Homosexuality law.
“We, too, did not choose to be parents of LGBTQ+ children, but we have chosen to love our children for who they are. As parents, we all desire and work to ensure that our children are healthy, well-educated, successful, and fulfilled in both their professional and personal lives.”
The letter was shared on Twitter by Dr Catherine Kyobutungi, a feminist and The Executive Director of the African Population and Health Research Center, sparking an online debate.
They requested President Yoweri Museveni not to assent to the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, saying they could no longer stand on the sidelines and watch as their children continued to be bashed and threatened in such a dangerous and deliberate manner.
Will President Museveni Listen?
There are doubts about whether Museveni, who previously signed the Anti-Homosexuality Bill into law in 2014, will heed the mothers’ call – even though he has sent the Bill back to parliament for amendment.
In a press statement released on April 20, 2023, which quoted him as saying: “Be ready to sacrifice to fight homosexuals,” he also noted: “It is good that you rejected the pressure from the imperialists. Those imperialists have been messing up the world for 600 years, causing so much damage.”
The Bill is to be returned not because of a change in sentiment but because Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka said the Bill in its current form criminalizes even those who voluntarily come out to having “practiced homosexuality” and need to be helped.
He proposed a provision for amnesty for this group.
Museveni has been quoted several times that those behind the criticism of the Bill were associated with Europeans – and he has expressed anti-homosexuality sentiments in several other addresses since then.
“There is some issue with these Europeans. They don’t listen; we have been telling them that this problem of homosexuality is not something that we should normalize and celebrate,” Museveni said. “I told them that there were some few homosexuals before Europeans came here … But now the Europeans want to turn the abnormal into normal and force it on others.”
After the Bill was enacted, Museveni addressed a meeting of members of Parliament from 22 African countries and the UK. He repeated that homosexuality was a deviation, adding that it was more dangerous than drugs.
In February 2014, President Museveni appointed a committee of scientists to determine whether there was a scientific or genetic basis for homosexuality and whether it could be learned and unlearned.
While the committee recommended a further study, it observed that homosexuality existed throughout history.
‘Blatant Violation of Rights’
Dr Zahara Nampewo, a lecturer at the Makerere University’s School of Law and Director of the Human Rights and Peace Centre (HURIPEC), speaking at a debate a day after the Bill was passed, said there were far-reaching implications of the law.
“We have raised our voices of concern over issues such as the blatant violation of rights such as the presumption of innocence, the right to a non-derogable right to a fair trial,” Nampewo says. “We have been calling for laws to protect children against child abuse; we have been calling for the marriage bill. Why now, in a period of a month, has (this) law been passed?”
The mover of the Bill, Asuman Basalirwa, told IPS that they had planned to table the Bill since August 2022, but it was only in late February that the Speaker granted them space on the order paper.
“The issue of recruitment, promotion, and financing of homosexuality. You don’t provoke a community like that. If those people were doing their things quietly, nobody would be bothered, but you see, you are going into our schools, you are attacking our children. And you want us to look on?”
Asked why a particular stance to criminalize LGBTQ+ persons, Basalirwa told IPS that the criminalization of homosexuality is not a new phenomenon. “It is the colonialists who first brought here a law on homosexuality section 145 of the penal code. This is intended to be a penal law. So you want a penal law that doesn’t criminalize it,” he asked.
Timing of Passing the Bill
Some critics have argued that the Bill was rushed by Speaker of Parliament Anita Among and her deputy Thomas Tayebwa because those behind it wanted it to be passed before an Inter-Parliamentary Conference on family values under the theme “Protecting African Culture and Family Values.”
The two-day conference was held on the shores of Lake Victoria from March 31 to April 1, 2023. It was attended by leaders of Family Watch International (FWI) officials. FWI is a US Christian organization described by civil rights activists as a “hate group, which opposes comprehensive sexuality education.” Delegates from FWI included Sharon Slater, who told the conference that: “We are on fire, and we must stop this culture of imperialism that is destroying our children.” Slater and her team, which included Henk Jan van Schothorst, the Executive Director at Christian Council International, and Gregg Scot, a US attorney, met Museveni and his wife, Janet Museveni, at State House Entebbe.
‘Victimless Offense’
But Dr Adrian Jjuuko, Executive Director at Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum – Uganda (HRAPF), disagrees with Basalirwa about the timing of the enactment of the Bill.
“This is a campaign that has been going on for years. And it is not just a Ugandan campaign. This is an international campaign,” said Jjuuko, whose organization provides legal aid to LGBTQI+ persons.
Jjuuko, whose organization has allegedly been listed by Uganda’s NGO Bureau among Civil Society groups likely to be closed, told IPS that the offenses suggested in the laws are victimless because the relationships were consensual. “If you have a victimless offense, why do you have to criminalize a victimless offense? Nobody is complaining; there’s no harm. Harm to who? To Hon Basalirwa?”
The Bill limits the offense of homosexuality to sexual acts between persons of the same sex. The offense is punishable by life imprisonment, up to ten years. It also provides for the offense of aggravated homosexuality.
“If you look at the provision on the promotion of homosexuality. It essentially bans what we do as lawyers. So as a lawyer, you cannot represent an LGBTQ+ person because that will be seen as a promotion of homosexuality,” Jjuuko says.
The law suggests several punishments, including the death penalty for being a repeat offender and life imprisonment.
“Repeat offender means if you are convicted of being gay twice, you die for that. Having consensual sex when you are HIV-positive, you die for that; if you have sex with a person of the advanced age of 75 years, you die for that regardless of whether it is consensual.”
Jjuuko observes, “If you wanted to fight pedophilia, sexual orientation is not what you go for. What you go for is the crime that you are interested in fighting.”
NGOs suspected of promoting homosexuality risk a fine of one billion shillings (over $264,000) or face twenty years in prison.
Restrictions, threats, and the vilification of sexual minorities in Uganda preceded the passing of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. In August 2022, the civil society organization Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) was banned by the Ugandan National Bureau (the NGO Bureau for Non-Governmental Organizations) because it was not registered. In 2012 the NGO Bureau rejected an application by SMUG to have it registered because the organization was “undesirable and un-registrable.”
Asuman Basalirwa, the mover of the Bill, and fellow Parliamentarians argued that the country needs the law to protect children from promoters of homosexuality. But Jjuuko, in an interview with IPS, said that it was a misplaced sentiment.
“If you talk about children, the biggest threat to our children is not homosexuality. The biggest threat to children is heterosexuality. Because if you look at the annual police crimes report, over ten thousand cases of defilement of girls by men. And there were only 83 cases of unnatural carnal knowledge (as the offense is described in the bill) against the order of nature.”
The Bill is Retrogressive
Many have observed that the Bill is retrogressive and will worsen the HIV situation in Uganda as it would deny LGBTIQ+ persons, who are key populations, access to HIV services.
The Bill came after PEPFER Uganda, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health in Uganda, the Uganda AIDS Commission, conducted a legal and environmental assessment of HIV/AIDS and key populations. The evaluation had recommendations to ensure an enabling environment to move the course toward epidemic control.
PEPFAR Uganda Country Coordinator, Mary Borgman, told IPS, “We need to ensure that the human rights of all key populations are respected regardless of who we are. And this is our primary objective to ensure that we provide services to all people. That is stigma and discrimination-free.”
While South Africa’s Constitution is hailed for being the first in the world to prohibit unfair discrimination based on sexual orientation, LGBTQ+ people still experience violence. Human Rights Watch noted that in 2021 at least 24 people were murdered due to their sexual orientation.
More concerning is the decision of an independent expert body within the African Union (AU), the African Commission of Human and Peoples’ Rights, to reject the three NGOs’ observer status to three NGOs.
Frans Viljoen, Director and Professor of International Human Rights Law, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, argues in the Conversation that the rejection of Alternative Côte d’Ivoire, Human Rights First Rwanda and Synergía “casts a shadow over the commission’s commitment to advancing the rights of all Africans. It also seriously erodes its independence from AU states … The denial of observer status means the NGOs will not have a voice before the African Commission. They will not be able to draw its attention to the human rights violations of LGBTQ+ people in Africa.”
Ms. McGlade spoke to UN News at UN Headquarters, during the 2023 session of the Forum, which takes place between 17 and 28 April.
“I’ve been an activist in my community sine I was young. I decided to study law because I thought that I could help to improve our human rights situation. I was fortunate enough to be able to undertake a master’s degree in international human rights, so I’ve been using it as best I can at international forums, and also advocating for reforms in Australia, because our human rights situation is very dire.
My people, the Noongar, were violently dispossessed from their lands by the British, and were basically enslaved: my great grandmother was an indentured child labourer. People who resisted the very cruel laws of the time were incarcerated and taken from their countries by chains to an island prison, where many died. Aboriginal children were forcibly removed from their families, en masse, as part of a policy called assimilation.
This is our violent history. As I was growing up, we faced many issues, including racism and the targeting of Aboriginal people, including aboriginal youth, by police; violence against women; refusal of our land rights; and poverty.
Coded racism, rights denied
Today, there is still a lot of racism in the media and in society. We face serious human rights issues, including the removal of children from their mothers, the high incarceration rates of Aboriginal people, particularly children and young people, in conditions that are very inhumane.
Australia is not the country I grew up in, when openly racist, derogatory language was used. But there’s more coded racism now. For example, the terribly sad issue of Aboriginal child sexual abuse is used as an excuse for removing children from their families.
There’s a lot of resistance to our rights being recognized, even the right to have our own national indigenous body, which should not be argued about in this day and age.
In some ways our rights situation is getting worse, according to the government’s own data. We’re seeing more incarceration of Aboriginal people; more Aboriginal children being removed from their mothers and families, increasingly to non-Indigenous families where they lose their cultural identity; and we’re seeing more Aboriginal suicides as well.
These are the shocking, ongoing impacts of colonization and we know that systemic and institutional racism and discrimination is a key driver of these issues.
The fight for a voice in parliament
There have been some improvements. We are now looking at a national referendum to change the Australian Constitution, to enshrine a democratically elected Aboriginal voice in parliament, that will be consulted and heard on matters affecting Aboriginal people. This would represent a historic, very substantive reform to the Constitution.
I’m really hoping that we are going to make this change. But of course, we are a minority, just four per cent of the population, and a majority of Australians will need to vote in favour of the reform.
We’re also calling on Australia to adopt a national action plan based on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. That was a recommendation of the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples in 2014, and it still hasn’t happened. Australia cannot claim leadership internationally, without respecting its international commitments in respect to indigenous peoples.
The power of international law
This Forum is a real chance for us to raise indigenous human rights issues with the governments of the world and indigenous peoples of the world listening. Decisions made here may not be binding at a national level, but UN Member States do have an obligation to genuinely engage, and to uphold our rights as indigenous peoples.
Sometimes we have a better chance of influencing domestic reforms in our country by arguing our case before the UN and in UN forums: the UN is still a prestigious international forum that we know that our governments have to respect.
I’ve used UN mechanisms to advance the issue of violence against indigenous women in Australia; for over five years, I went to various UN treaty bodies and highlighted this issue and the failure of the government allocate resources and develop relevant policies. This eventually led to a commitment from the Australian Government to act.
We are a part of the UN and the World Affairs now. With the threat of climate change and our future in the balance, it should be very clear that indigenous peoples have their place in this dialogue.”
The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) is a high- level advisory body to the Economic and Social Council. The Forum was established to deal with indigenous issues related to economic and social development, culture, the environment, education, health and human rights.
In addition to the six mandated areas (economic and social development, culture, the environment, education, health and human rights), each session is thematically focused on a specific issue.
The Permanent Forum is one of three UN bodies mandated to deal specifically with indigenous peoples’ issues. The others are the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples.
The 2023 session of the Forum takes place from 17-28 April at UN Headquarters.
WMO latest State of the Global Climate report shows that the last eight years were the eight warmest on record, and that sea level rise and ocean warming hit new highs. Record levels of greenhouse gases caused “planetary scale changes on land, in the ocean and in the atmosphere”.
The organization says its report, released ahead of this year’s Mother Earth Day, echoes UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ call for “deeper, faster emissions cuts to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degree Celsius”, as well as “massively scaled-up investments in adaptation and resilience, particularly for the most vulnerable countries and communities who have done the least to cause the crisis”.
WMO Secretary-General, Prof. Petteri Taalas, said that amid rising greenhouse gas emissions and a changing climate, “populations worldwide continue to be gravely impacted by extreme weather and climate events”. He stressed that last year, “continuous drought in East Africa, record breaking rainfall in Pakistan and record-breaking heatwaves in China and Europe affected tens of millions, drove food insecurity, boosted mass migration, and cost billions of dollars in loss and damage.”
WMO highlights the importance of investing in climate monitoring and early warning systems to help mitigate the humanitarian impacts of extreme weather. The report also points out that today, improved technology makes the transition to renewable energy “cheaper and more accessible than ever”.
Warmest years on record
The State of the Global Climate report complements the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment report released a month ago, which includes data up to 2020.
WMO’s new figures show that global temperatures have continued to rise, making the years 2015 to 2022 the eight warmest ever since regular tracking started in 1850. WMO notes that this was despite three consecutive years of a cooling La Niña climate pattern.
WMO says concentrations of the three main greenhouse gases, which trap heat in the atmosphere – carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide – reached record highs in 2021, which is the latest year for which consolidated data is available, and that there are indications of a continued increase in 2022.
Indicators ‘off the charts’
According to the report, “melting of glaciers and sea level rise – which again reached record levels in 2022 – will continue to up to thousands of years”. WMO further highlights that “Antarctic sea ice fell to its lowest extent on record and the melting of some European glaciers was, literally, off the charts”.
Sea level rise, which threatens the existence of coastal communities and sometimes entire countries, has been fuelled not only by melting glaciers and ice caps in Greenland and Antarctica, but also by the expansion of the volume of oceans due to heat. WMO notes that ocean warming has been “particularly high in the past two decades”.
WMO/Muhammad Amdad Hossain
Seasonal floods are a part of life in Chittagong, Bangladesh.
Deadly consequences
The report examines the many socio-economic impacts of extreme weather, which have wreaked havoc in the lives of the most vulnerable around the world. Five consecutive years of drought in East Africa, in conjunction with other factors such as armed conflict, have brought devastating food insecurity to 20 million people across the region.
Extensive flooding in Pakistan caused by severe rainfall in July and August last year killed over 1,700 people, while some 33 million were affected. WMO highlights that total damage and economic losses were assessed at $30 billion, and that by October 2022, around 8 million people had been internally displaced by the floods.
The report also notes that in addition to putting scores of people on the move, throughout the year, hazardous climate and weather-related events “worsened conditions” for many of the 95 million people already living in displacement.
Threat to ecosystems
Environmental impacts of climate change are another focus of the report, which highlights a shift in recurring events in nature, “such as when trees blossom, or birds migrate”. The flowering of cherry trees in Japan has been tracked since the ninth century, and in 2021 the date of the event was the earliest recorded in 1,200 years.
As a result of such shifts, entire ecosystems can be upended. WMO notes that spring arrival times of over a hundred European migratory bird species over five decades “show increasing levels of mismatch to other spring events”, such as the moment when trees produce leaves and insects take flight, which are important for bird survival.
The report says these mismatches “are likely to have contributed to population decline in some migrant species, particularly those wintering in sub-Saharan Africa”, and to the ongoing destruction of biodiversity.
Ending the ‘war on nature’
In his message on Earth Day, UN chief Mr. Guterres warned that “biodiversity is collapsing as one million species teeter on the brink of extinction”, and called on the world to end its “relentless and senseless wars on nature”, insisting that “we have the tools, the knowledge, and the solutions” to address climate change.
Last month, Mr. Guterres convened an Advisory Panel of top UN agency officials, private sector and civil society leaders, to help fast track a global initiative aiming to protect all countries through life-saving early warning systems by 2027. Stepped up coordinated action was announced, initially in 30 countries particularly vulnerable to extreme weather, including Small Island Developing States and Least Developed Countries.
Early Warnings for All
WMO Secretary-General Prof. Petteri Taalas said on Friday that some one hundred countries currently do not have adequate weather services in place, and that the UN Early Warnings for All Initiative “aims to fill the existing capacity gap to ensure that every person on earth is covered by early warning services”.
Mr. Taalas explained that “achieving this ambitious task requires improvement of observation networks, investments in early warning, hydrological and climate service capacities.” He also stressed the effectiveness of collaboration among UN agencies in addressing humanitarian impacts of climate events, especially in reducing mortality and economic losses.
“I am horrified by the toll the clashes are having on civilians”, said Abdou Dieng. “At least 331 people have been killed nationwide, including five aid workers, and nearly 3,200 have been injured.”
The fighting between troops from the national army and a powerful rival militia known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) erupted six days ago, and has had a devastating impact on civilian life and the major on-going humanitarian aid operation across Sudan.
Latest news reports indicate that bombing, shelling and gunfire have continued unabated, especially in the capital Khartoum, and the UN migration agency, IOM, reported on Friday that one of its staff members had become a victim of the violence.
UN migration agency staffer killed
“It is with a heavy heart that I confirm the death of a dedicated IOM Sudan staff member this morning after the vehicle he was traveling in with his family south of El Obeid was caught in a crossfire between two warring parties”, said Director General, António Vitorino.
He said the male staffer leaves behind a wife and newborn child, “and our team in Sudan in mourning.”
“The safety and security of all IOM staff is my number one priority. We continue to work with our UN partners to update our security response”, he assured.
Three workers from the World Food Programme (WFP) lost their lives in North Darfur as the military showdown first began on Saturday.
Mr. Vitorino said the latest outbreak of violence has forced IOM to suspend its humanitarian operations in Sudan.
IOM has operated in Sudan since 2000, responding to the complex humanitarian needs in the country where an estimated 3.7 million people are internally displaced”, the IOM chief continued.
Some 15.8 million people in Sudan, one-third of the population, were in need of humanitarian assistance before this week’s fighting began.
Food, water, healthcare crisis
Mr. Dieng said that even short agreed pauses in the intense fighting between the rival factions, which have so far ignored all calls for a ceasefire, would allow civilians access to essential food and water.
“Access to health facilities is also paramount. Many hospitals have had to close. And in those that are functioning, widespread blackouts and lack of electricity place patients at high risk.”
Several hospitals have simply run out of blood and other lifesaving supplies.
“Assaults on hospitals, humanitarian staff and facilities must stop”, said the Humanitarian Coordinator.
“As we are ending the holy month of Ramadan and celebrate Eid al-Fitr, a time of peace and reconciliation, I call on all parties to the conflict to immediately end the fighting and work towards a peaceful resolution.”
On Thursday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres made an urgent call for a three-day ceasefire over Eid, as the “first step” towards a permanent cessation of hostilities, noting that humanitarian operations had become “virtually impossible”.
The UN alone has a 4,000-strong team of humanitarian workers, 3,200 of whom are Sudanese nationals.
According to the latest statement from UN aid coordination office OCHA, there have been reports of military strikes against health facilities, hijacking of ambulances with patients and paramedics still on board, looting of health facilities, and military forces occupying health facilities.
Severe shortages grow
In hospitals, there are severe shortages of specialized medical staff, oxygen supplies and blood bags, according to the World Health Organization, WHO, while lack of electricity and blackouts place hospital patients at high risk.
“There are also rapidly rising mental health and psychosocial support needs, especially among children, as the conflict continues”, noted OCHA.
As of Friday morning, heavy gunfire, air strikes and shelling have been reported in different parts of the country, OCHA added, especially in North, Central and South Darfur states, North Kordofan and in the capital, Khartoum.
On 20 April, there were unverified reports of intensified clashes in El Obeid, North Kordofan State, as well as unrest and rising tensions in Gedaref, in eastern Sudan.
“As in all crises, this will surely have dire and disproportionate impacts on the lives of Sudanese women and girls. We stand in solidarity with the people of Sudan and remain committed to supporting them.
“The resilience of Sudanese women is a source of hope, their role in the pursuit of peace essential, their strength as humanitarian workers, carers and protectors an inspiration”, added Ms. Bahous.
“We must heed their calls for a ceasefire and peace and commit to supporting them in everything they do.”
She noted that reports of sexual and gender-based violence were already surfacing, and feared “they will only grow more frequent.”
She called on Government troops and militia to “ensure that no woman or girl is affected by these crimes”.
She insisted that “every instance” of sexual and gender-based violence must be investigated and prosecuted without exception.
“The UN Secretary-General has called for an immediate halt to the fighting to coincide with Eid-Al-Fitr. This will allow the continued delivery of essential humanitarian assistance and a return to dialogue. He has demanded respect for international law. I join his call and urge all parties to commit to a peaceful resolution.”
Hopes are running high of an end to the intense fighting between a Saudi-backed coalition standing alongside Government forces, and Houthi rebels and their allies, which since 2015 has led the near total collapse of the economy, with tens of thousands killed, and 21.6 million in need of humanitarian assistance and protection this year, according to the UN.
“Nevertheless, the country’s fragile health system is severely overburdened and edging closer to collapse”, said Dr. Annette Heinzelmann of the WHO in Yemen, “while international donor funding is insufficient to avert further deterioration of the country’s failing health services.”
Acute child malnutrition
She said that around 12.9 million Yemenis have urgent humanitarian healthcare needs, with 540,000 children under five, currently suffering from severe acute malnutrition “with a direct risk of death.”
Some 46 percent of health facilities across the country are only partially functioning or completely out of service, due to shortages of staff, funds, electricity, or medicines.
She told journalists at the regular Friday briefing at the UN in Geneva, that the Yemen humanitarian “Health Cluster”, made up of 46 UN and non-governmental organizations, has received only 62 million – or 16 percent – of the $392 million needed to reach those 12.9 million most-vulnerable people.
“Disease outbreaks – notably of measles, diphtheria, dengue, cholera and polio – are accelerating Yemen’s deepening health crisis. Mass-displacements, overburdened health facilities, disruptions of water and sanitation networks, and low immunization coverage are triggering and spreading these disease outbreaks.”
In the first quarter of this year, more than 13,000 new cases of measles, 8,777 cases of dengue fever, and 2,080 suspected cholera cases were reported. “But the actual numbers are likely much higher”, she warned.
Controlling vector-borne, water-borne, and neglected tropical diseases.
Fighting chronic diseases including diabetes, renal diseases, and cancer.
Maintaining water, sanitation and hygiene services in health facilities to strengthen infection prevention and control measures.
Supporting and improving maternal and newborn healthcare
Meeting neglected mental health needs.
Supported by international donors, WHO was able to provide essential medical equipment, supplies, and training in 2022 to around 7.8 million people – that’s around 62 percent of the 12.6 million people targeted under the Humanitarian Response Plan for the year.
She said that WHO also ensured life-saving care for just over 60,000 Yemeni children suffering from severe acute malnutrition, with medical complications.
Dr. Heinzelmann said that WHO and health partners in Yemen “are beginning to see the dire consequences of our severely underfunded efforts to mitigate Yemen’s health crisis.”
She pointed to the expected suspension of support by the Yemen Health Cluster to 23 out of 43 health facilities in the Marib district, which is host to Yemen’s largest population of internally displaced persons (IDPs).
In effect, this will effectively stop healthcare services for about 2.8 million most vulnerable people in the area.
Out of money
She said WHO has “almost no funds available to prepare for Yemen’s annual flood season that is starting now and will bring a predictably major upsurge in vector-borne and water-borne disease outbreaks”.
“In closing, I must emphasize the consequences of Yemen becoming a forgotten humanitarian crisis. The Yemeni people are resilient but suffering greatly. More than two of every three Yemenis are dependent on food, medical, and other humanitarian assistance.
“The international community must scale up support to Yemen “to avert untold human suffering and deaths in coming months”, she concluded.
DHAKA, Bangladesh, Apr 21 (IPS) – The world is becoming increasingly coexistent with crises. A pandemic, the Ukraine-Russia war, and cost-of-living crisis are only a few of the ordeals we’ve seen in just the last two years.
As is characteristic of such crisis settings, those already marginalized are further pushed back, augmenting existing barriers to accessing services, resources and opportunities.
The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals centered around leaving no-one behind become all the more difficult to achieve.
Crisis settings are now leading to a worrying trend where those not categorically marginalized are becoming increasingly vulnerable. The World Bank estimates that the COVID-19 pandemic pushed 71-100 million people into extreme poverty, giving rise to the “new poor”, those above the poverty line pre-pandemic who fell below the marker during it.
Against this backdrop, identifying vulnerabilities for development assistance becomes an exponentially more difficult – yet necessary process.
In Bangladesh, around 20 percent of the population was below the poverty line before 2020. This figure has increased substantially since, and is becoming a phenomenon less temporary than expected. In accurately identifying the vulnerabilities of such groups, conventional, income-centred measures of poverty may fall short.
Policy measures must therefore be dispensed using tools that can effectively deal with a range of vulnerabilities, beyond income.
One is the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), which captures deprivations in non-monetary dimensions of wellbeing, utilizing a range of indicators in calculating poverty levels for a particular population. Poverty levels are then represented by an MPI score. The higher the figure, the greater the level of poverty.
To see whether multidimensional approaches to addressing vulnerability could potentially be more helpful during crises the Research Facility at the UNDP Bangladesh country office analyzed data from its “Livelihoods Improvement of Urban Poor Communities” (LIUPC) project.
This is a poverty reduction programme covering four million urban poor in 19 Bangladeshi cities, and employs the MPI metric to identify deprivation levels of potential beneficiaries. Conditional cash grants are provided to help eligible MPI-poor households start a business or expand an existing one.
These households also received COVID-19 relief in the form of cash, food, or preventive materials as unconditional support, separate from grants intrinsically part of the project.
A study presented in a recent UNDP Development Futures Series brief compared the before-and-during COVID MPI figures of the beneficiary group with two other household categories – MPI-poor non-grantee households, and vulnerable MPI non-poor households. The detailed methodology and results of the study can be seen here.
Some of the findings from the study were intuitive, business grants disbursed by the project generally helped poor households reduce their multidimensional poverty levels, despite the pandemic.
Far more interesting however were the rather less intuitive policy insights from the analysis:
Consider vulnerable non-poor groups in development programming.
The study’s findings corroborated the emergence of the “new poor”. Households with MPI scores not high enough to be eligible for grants (but still vulnerable, just below the MPI poverty threshold) experienced on average an increase in their multidimensional poverty levels during the pandemic.
People in these categories usually remain outside the purview of emergency policy measures, having not met eligibility requirements of being “poor” under normal circumstances. As such, their vulnerabilities remain unaddressed and are exacerbated during crises.
Cash support helps vulnerable groups during crises.
Findings suggest that the improvement in MPI levels was concentrated amongst the poor groups, including non-grant receivers, while the vulnerable group, who did not receive grants, saw poverty levels deteriorating.
The latter group barely received cash support even in the form of COVID-19 relief, unlike the poor groups. This suggests that in crisis situations, households that receive unconditional cash support may be able to use it to improve living conditions in the immediate term, including households that are not the neediest judging solely by MPI score, but are still vulnerable and at-risk during crises.
Context-specific MPI can complement income-based poverty measures.
Increases or decreases in a household’s MPI score may obscure changes in households with specific vulnerabilities, such as members with disabilities, members belonging to a particular age group, or geographical and regional characteristics.
Despite an overall decline in MPI scores amongst poor households who received grants, the improvement in multidimensional poverty was not reflected for grantee households with disabled members.
Thus, the use of a uniform MPI metric in programming, irrespective of variations in local contexts, also risks overlooking specific needs of vulnerable communities.
Understanding multidimensional poverty would greatly benefit from dynamic data.
The study used static data which cannot account for real-time changes occurring after collection. In this case, if the data had been dynamic and could be updated during the pandemic, the project may have been able to identify beneficiaries and discern the nature of relief needed more appropriately.
Nuzhat Fatima is a Research assistant at UNDP Bangladesh.
Fruit stalls at a local market in Hanoi, Vietnam. Credit: Shutterstock.
Opinion by Tuyen Huynh (hanoi)
Inter Press Service
HANOI, Apr 20 (IPS) – This month Nature spotlighted three insightful new studies chronicling food-related challenges from a global perspective. One presented worrisome new data on the global rise in the prevalence of diabetes, high blood pressure and liver disease, all linked to obesity. Another presented a new assessment revealing that half of the greenhouse emissions generated by food systems globally are caused by food waste. Finally, the third study found that food consumption could add “nearly 1 degree Celsius to warming by 2100,” with most of that attributed to global methane emissions from meat, dairy and rice production.
Studies like these are valuable for focusing attention on the need for a fundamental reset from farm to fork in the way food is produced and consumed around the world. But we also must recognize their limits.
Chiefly, that solutions to the problems they skillfully document will fail unless adapted to specific social, political and economic contexts on the ground.
We recently spent two years studying food systems across Northern Vietnam. Our work reveals how much food-related challenges can change even over relatively narrow distances—and how solutions must be tailored accordingly.
The contrasts we documented can be instructive for other countries as well. As a fast-growing, rapidly urbanizing middle-income country that still has a large rural population, Vietnam is an ideal living laboratory for studying the essential role of local food environments in shaping solutions to global food challenges.
In our work, we roamed the colorful, richly stocked open-air markets and modern retail outlets of urban Hanoi. We traveled just outside the city to study the food landscape in the populous peri-urban area of Dong Anh.
We visited the rural highlands of the Moc Chau district in Son La Province, where people rely on agriculture for their livelihoods. Along the way, we surveyed thousands of people to learn about where they purchased food and what they ate. Here are a few key lessons that emerged.
Food-related issues are linked to both what you eat and where you eat it. With their bounty of choices and relatively high incomes, people in urban Hanoi tend to eat very diverse diets, including more meat, dairy and fish, than people in other areas in Northern Vietnam. It’s the opposite in rural Moc Chau: a dearth of food outlets and a reliance on subsistence farming leads to a narrower menu of options—and diets that are heavy in starchy staples. This difference produces a sharp contrast in food-related health problems. In rural areas, the issue is stunting and wasting in poorly fed children, which is three to four times higher than in urban or peri-urban areas. In urban areas, an abundance of food choices contributes to childhood obesity rates that are 6 to 10 times higher than in the other regions we studied.
Problems are clear; solutions are complex—especially in local contexts: We know that addressing malnutrition requires improving food choices, but that also requires considering trade-offs that can be highly political. For example, there is evidence that consistent access to nutrient-dense meat, fish and dairy products can reduce malnutrition in low-income communities like those we studied in rural Vietnam. But a lack of these products in local diets is a key reason rural food systems in Vietnam produce much lower emissions than those in urban areas. The solution is two-fold. First, we must acknowledge the different realities of people in high-income regions globally who have an abundance of nutritious food choices and those in low-income regions who have few. Second, supporting efforts in low-income communities to adopt environmentally sustainable, climate-positive approaches to livestock production—while encouraging more modest consumption in wealthy regions–can capture their benefits in fighting malnutrition while mitigating risks.
Promoting healthy diets requires probing local factors behind consumer behavior. Compared to other regions in Vietnam, a significantly higher percentage of rural consumers are relying on cheap and highly processed instant noodles to meet their dietary needs. But encouraging a shift to healthier diets requires engaging the broader constellation of local issues driving this choice. For example, economic policies that drive inflation can negatively affect household food budgets. Also, we found the neglect local road systems in rural areas we studied was a factor in limiting access to food stores and food selection relative to urban and peri-urban areas.
They are committed to a transformation of a global food system many view as fundamentally broken. The latest scientific studies chronicling food-related impacts to human and planetary health—alongside the recent shocks to the global food system caused by Covid pandemic—certainly support this view.
Our work reveals that food system challenges vary considerably depending on where you live—and that developing effective solutions requires a focused effort to detect these differences. It means if we want to achieve a more sustainable food system transformation, we must think globally but act locally.
Tuyen Huynh is a leading food systems expert and senior researcher at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT
The removal of Mughal history from textbooks is seen as a political move which downplays the rich diversity of the Indian subcontinent. This artwork stems from this period. Credit: Govardhan. Jahangir Visiting the Ascetic Jadrup. ca. 1616-20, Musee Guimet, Paris
by Ranjit Devraj (new delhi)
Inter Press Service
NEW DELHI, Apr 20 (IPS) – The removal from school textbooks of chapters covering the Mughal period of Indian history spanning three centuries has raised a storm of protests from academics.
UNESCO’s India representative, Hezekiel Damani, said the organisation advises that the curriculum represents a conscious and systematic selection of knowledge, skills and values that shape the way teaching, learning and assessment processes are organised by addressing questions such as what, why, when and how students should learn.
“Therefore, a quality curriculum must pave the way to the effective implementation of inclusive and equitable quality education,” Damani says. “Subject-specific curriculum development, reform and revision are entirely the decision of member states; they must be conscious of today’s curriculum, and future needs while making any intervention.”
“The issue here is that Mughal rule does not align well with present-day politics — it is no surprise that chapters that refer to that period are being deleted by the National Council for Education Research and Training (NCERT),” says Ruchika Sharma, who teaches history at the Delhi University.
Sharma says that from an academic point of view, the Mughal period presents a well-researched part of Indian history because of the rich documentation they left behind. “Removing an entire chapter dealing with such an important period of history from class XII textbooks would certainly affect students’ career choices — they will see a mismatch between visible legacy and the curriculum.”
Sharma referred in particular to the chapter titled ‘Kings and Chronicles, the Mughal Courts,’ from the NCERT history book Themes of Indian History-Part II, which describes how the Mughals encouraged peasants to cultivate cash crops such as cotton grown over a “great swathe of territory that spread over central India and the Deccan plateau.”
The Mughal period saw India becoming the world’s biggest exporter of cotton as well as cotton manufactures such as calico and fine muslins that were shipped to the European markets by the Dutch and English East India Companies that were allowed to set up ‘factories’ or fortified trading posts along the Indian coasts.
Other revenue-generating crops included sugarcane and oilseeds such as mustard and lentil that were grown alongside staples like rice, wheat and millets, the deleted chapter said. The section on ‘Irrigation and Technology’ noted that under the Mughals, cultivation rapidly expanded with the help of artificial irrigation systems and the introduction of crops from the new world, such as tomatoes, potatoes and chilli.
Swapna Liddle, historian and author, says that much of India’s built heritage, language, arts, agriculture and land tenure systems are a legacy of the Mughal period. “It is important to study how India was also progressing in the scientific fields during that period,” says Liddle.
The Mughal period saw a flowering of the sciences, especially astronomy, mathematics, medicine, architecture and engineering, that had an impact long after the dynasty ended in 1857. Akbar’s reign (1556—1605), for example, saw the establishment of medical schools and dispensaries, while his successor, Jehangir, patronised the study of mathematics and astronomy.
On April 7, a group of ‘Concerned Historians’ issued a statement saying: “We are appalled by the decision of the NCERT to remove chapters and statements from history textbooks and demand that the deletions from the textbooks be immediately withdrawn.”
“The decision of the NCERT is guided by divisive motives. It is a decision that goes against the constitutional ethos and composite culture of the Indian subcontinent. As such, it must be rescinded at the earliest,” said the statement, which has been endorsed by hundreds of academics.
According to the statement, the textbooks were designed to be inclusive and provide a sense of the rich diversity of the human past both within the subcontinent as well as the wider world. “As such, removing chapters/sections of chapters is highly problematic not only in terms of depriving learners of valuable content but also in terms of the pedagogical values required to equip them to meet present and future challenges.”
The director of the NCERT, Dinesh Kumar Saklani, has stated that the chapters were removed as part of “rationalisation aimed at reducing the burden on schoolchildren following the COVID-19 pandemic.” He claimed that the rationalisation was vetted by experts and denied that there was any political agenda behind the move.
Says Ajay K. Mehra, a political scientist currently attached to the independent think tank, the Observer Research Foundation: “It would have been far better to modify the chapters on the Mughal and Islamic periods than delete them altogether — this way a very large and important period of mediaeval Indian history is going to be lost to impressionable young students and to future generations.”
The changes to the textbooks, says Mehra, are deliberate and part of a larger, declared political agenda to restore the past glory of Hindu dynasties that existed before the arrival of Islam in India. This can be seen in the renaming of roads and cities, he said, citing the renaming of Allahabad city in 2018 to Prayagraj to reflect its importance as a Hindu pilgrimage site at the confluence of the sacred Yamuna and Ganges rivers.
“What is lost here is the fact that Mughal rule saw enormous economic advancement that lasted three centuries because of a compact with Hindu Rajput (princely) feudatories. “Rajput princes not only led Mughal armies but also entered into marital alliances — two of the important Mughal emperors, Jehangir and Shah Jahan, were born of Rajput princesses, for example,” Mehra said.
Makkhan Lal, distinguished fellow at the Vivekananda International Foundation, a think tank considered close to the government, says that there is a case for the Mughal period getting “disproportionate description and allotment of space” in history textbooks and this needed to be rectified.
Lal, who has taught history at the Banaras Hindu University and worked with the NCERT, said the “correction being made now is a step in the right direction and should have been taken earlier.”
Apart from academics, leaders of opposition parties have also denounced the changes to the textbooks. Sitaram Yechury, general secretary of the Communist Party of India, said the changes made to class textbooks were regrettable because of India’s diversity.
“The lands of India have always been the churning crucible of civilisational advances through cultural confluences,” Yechury says.
Pinarayi Vijayan, who leads a communist party government in the southern Kerala state, Tweeted: “They resort to rewriting history and masking it with lies. So, we must strongly protest the decision of the BJP government to delete certain sections from NCERT textbooks. Let the truth prevail.”
“This must be the first step in providing respite from the fighting and paving the way for a permanent ceasefire,” he said, briefing journalists at UN Headquarters in New York.
Dialogue and transition
The AU meeting brought together the UN, the League of Arab States, the East African bloc IGAD, the European Union, and countries committed to bringing an end to the hostilities in Sudan, where rival military factions have been battling for power for nearly a week.
Hundreds have been killed in the clashes between the Sudanese armed forces and the paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who are at odds over the return to civilian rule.
Humanitarians have also been hampered from carrying out their lifesaving operations, due to attacks and looting.
Mr. Guterres said the cessation of hostilities must be followed by serious dialogue, allowing for the successful transition, starting with the appointment of a civilian government.
Concern for UN staff
He condemned the targeting of humanitarian workers and assets, and reminded the parties of their international obligations, including to ensure the safety and security of aid workers.
“I’m also extremely worried about the situation of United Nations personnel, many of whom are trapped in their homes in areas of active conflict. We are doing everything in our power to be able to support them,” he continued.
Most of the fighting has occurred in the capital, Khartoum, where residents have been trapped in their homes for days.
UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe
Secretary General António Guterres briefs the media on the situation in Sudan.
Concern over healthcare
Thousands have fled the city, though evacuation has become increasingly difficult. Humanitarians warn that people are running out of food, fuel and other vital supplies, and many urgently need medical care.
“The situation in Sudan is increasingly concerning and heart breaking. Over 330 people have died so far, and nearly 3,200 are injured,” the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, wrote in a statement posted on his official Twitter account.
Tedros condemned all loss of life, especially attacks on civilians and healthcare. He expressed deep concern over reports of forces occupying health facilities, underlining that attacks on healthcare are a flagrant violation of international law.
Services in chaos
“The lack of safe access, of electricity, food, water, personnel and the diminishing medical supplies are making it nearly impossible for many health facilities to function at the exact time when there are thousands injured in need of urgent care,” he said.
The head of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) also called on the parties to respect their international obligations to protect boys and girls from harm and to ensure humanitarians can quickly reach children in need.
Childhood under fire
“Five days of intense hostilities in Sudan, and four failed ceasefires, have already taken a devastating toll on the country’s children,” UNICEF Director Catherine Russell said in a statement. “If the violence does not stop, this toll will only increase.”
She said at least nine children have reportedly been killed, and more than 50 reportedly injured as hostilities continues in Khartoum, the Darfur states and North Kordofan, though insecurity makes it difficult to collect and verify information.
“We have received reports of children sheltering in schools and care centres while fighting rages around them, of children’s hospitals forced to evacuate as shelling moves closer, and hospitals, health centres and other critical infrastructure damaged or destroyed, limiting access to essential and lifesaving care and medicine,” she added.
Critical care disrupted
Humanitarian needs in Sudan were already at record levels at the start of the year, according to UN relief agency, OCHA, with nearly one third of the population, almost 16 million people, requiring assistance.
Ms. Russell said the crisis has disrupted critical-life saving care for an estimated 50,000 children suffering from acute malnutrition, who need ongoing round-the-clock care.
“The fighting also puts at risk the cold chain in Sudan, including over $40 million worth of vaccines and insulin, due to the breaks in the power supply and the inability to restock generators with fuel,” she added.
Hunger could rise
Meanwhile, the World Food Programme (WFP) warned that the violence could push millions more into hunger.
WFP had planned to support some 7.6 million people in Sudan this year but was forced to temporarily halt operations as the fighting is preventing teams from carrying out activities such as delivering critical emergency food, providing school meals, and preventing and treating malnutrition.
The UN agency has also suffered immense losses as three staff members were killed in crossfire on Saturday, and two sustained severe injuries. WFP added that its staff, offices, vehicles, equipment and food stocks have also come in the direct line of fire.
UN aid flights grounded
The UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS), which WFP manages on behalf of the international community, is now completely grounded. One aircraft in Khartoum has been damaged beyond repair, and at least 10 vehicles and six food trucks have been stolen.
Additionally, WFP guesthouses, offices and warehouses in Nyala, South Darfur, have been overrun and looted, resulting in the loss of up to 4,000 metric tonnes of food.
With Sudan’s health system reportedly at near collapse, the UN reproductive health agency, UNFPA, is concerned about pregnant women who require ongoing care and access to hospitals where they can safely give birth.
Protecting expectant mothers
UNFPA Regional Director Laila Bakur, who spoke to UN News on Wednesday, estimated that there are approximately 219,000 mothers-to-be in Khartoum alone.
“We find that there is very little that we can do in terms of provision of care, and they have not been able to access any form of safe delivery,” she said.
Ms. Baker spoke about one of the tragic cases UNFPA has encountered, concerning an expectant mother who was caught in crossfire and struck by a bullet while desperately trying to get to a hospital.
“Although she was rushed to the hospital – UNFPA is providing services even over the telephone in terms of guidance and telemedicine wherever it’s possible – we were able to save the child, the baby, but the woman sadly died,” she said.
“We’re greatly concerned that situations on the ground where the respect for civilian life and access to medical care is not respected by conflicting parties will result in more cases like this,” she added.
“We really and truly wish, and ask all of the parties in conflict to respect international humanitarian law, particularly where access to health care is concerned.”
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