The Humanitarian Crisis in Sudan Deepens

0:00Today on State of the World, the humanitarian crisis in Sudan deepens.

0:09You're listening to State of the World from NPR. We bring you the day's most vital international stories, up close, where they're happening. It's Wednesday, October 29th. I'm Greg Dixon. For many people, if they've heard of Darfur, Sudan, it's because of the terrible genocide that happened there 20 years ago. According to the U.S. and U.N., there's a genocide happening in Darfur again, and the violence there just reached new levels. The RSF, a paramilitary group battling the Sudanese government, has taken control of the city of Al-Fashir. The group had been laying siege to that city for 18 months.

0:46Sudan's army has now withdrawn, and hundreds of thousands of people trapped there are now being systematically murdered. This is a difficult but important story, and in today's episode, we will hear about atrocities happening in the city and the sounds of gunfire. We start with NPR's Emmanuel Akinwotu. who spoke to one man in Al-Fashir shortly before he was killed. When there was still hope for the thousands trapped in Al-Fashir, Mohamed Duda was a tireless voice. Hello, dear Manuel. I'm so glad to be in touch with you. I will share with you every day a news update if you want. Just don't hesitate.

1:25Call me. He sent voice messages to international media and NGOs reporting the suffering being inflicted by the Rapid Support Forces. The situation in Al-Fashir right now is very horrible, you know. He sent them even after he'd been shot, as the RSF and allied Arab militias took over the largest refugee camp in Sudan, where many from African ethnic groups, including Duda, were sheltering. And he reported on how the siege on the historic city in Darfur was starving them. Daily the children dying of hunger and also elders dying of starvation. This week, the city finally fell to the RSF. More than 200 ,000 people were trapped there, according to the UN, including Mohamed Duda, who an advocacy group reports was killed.

2:10The takeover of the city has led to yet another wave of RSF atrocities during the more than two-year war with Sudan's army. Much of the evidence has been volunteered, recorded by fighters, posted online by RSF-affiliated accounts. They document ethnic-based violence against African ethnicities in Darfur that the US and UN have called a genocide, a repeat of the Darfur genocide 20 years ago.

2:37In one of many videos, fighters filmed themselves walking through a hospital in Al-Fashir and killing anyone still alive. Nathaniel Raymond is the director of the Yale University Humanitarian Research Lab, which have identified piles of bodies near military vehicles in Al-Fashir seen on satellite imagery. Other than one UN Security Council resolution last summer calling for a ceasefire, the international community has fundamentally done nothing. Now thousands still alive are in imminent peril. Both sides in the war have been accused of atrocities, the majority by the Rapid Support Forces. They are backed and armed by the United Arab Emirates, a key US ally according to widespread evidence.

3:19The UAE denies involvement. Every day, my team and I at the Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale watch Al-Fashur's destruction from space. No one can say they didn't know. Emmanuel Akimotu, NPR News, Douala, Cameroon. For more on what's happening in Darfur, Sudan, we're going to hear from Emi Mahmood. She's a Sudanese-American poet, and she's the strategic director for the IDP Humanitarian Network in Darfur. She spoke to NPR's Leila Fadl. Emi, you are from Al-Fashid originally. That is your hometown. What do you know about your family right now and what's happening in the city? What's so painful and difficult in this moment is that the past more than 24 hours have been so harrowing because we have so many people who are unaccounted for.

4:07I am recognizing family members, neighbors and friends in the videos that show the RSF gloating over the people that they have killed. So many are unaccounted for, and thousands upon thousands have been killed only in the first few hours of this incredibly violent escalation of the genocide. You call it a genocide. The U.S. has determined that this is a genocide being committed by the RSF in Darfur. Why is this moment such a pivotal moment for civilians? This is our Shrebrenica moment. Just like the siege of Sarajevo, which was happening in the view of the entire world for four years before the world finally intervened.

4:52This is the moment where if no one intervenes, there will be no one left to save. Anyone who is met by the RSF, the RSF goes house to house and anyone that they see, they kill. Men, women and children. There are entire families hanging from trees. There are ditches full of our family members' mass graves. And what's so harrowing about this is that not only is this being allowed to continue, but it's being live streamed by the perpetrators themselves because they understand that they can act with impunity. What happens next is that Al-Fashir is the gateway to the rest of Sudan. So the reason that this moment is so pivotal is because this is a turning point that can throw the entire country back into war, into a greater war than we are already facing.

5:38This is the biggest humanitarian crisis on the planet. And yet it feels like there's been a muted international response and nothing has stopped this violence. Why? A lot of people don't understand what's happening in Sudan. It has been misconstrued as a civil war, But I can tell you, no civilians call what's happening in Sudan a civil war. It is an escalation of the Darfur genocide, and it is a proxy war involving some of the richest countries in the world. The RSF is supported by the UAE. It's very well documented. And the SAF is mainly supported by Saudi Arabia and also Egypt, Iran, Russia, and Turkey.

6:21And then on the RSF side, there were also Ukrainian special forces that were fighting because Russia was on the other side. And now we even have Colombian mercenaries on the ground in Sudan. If I told you that there was a proxy war that involved several of the richest nations in the world and that the most consequential of them were US allies and that the US could intervene, that the UN could intervene, that the UK could say something, the AU could say something, but everyone turns away, would you believe me? Would you believe that this is something that's happening in 2025? All the people in power, our governments understand this, but there is no political incentive to do something.

7:02Al-Feshit is a place that you remember before a time of violence. Is there anything right now that gives you hope? The thing that gives me hope in this moment is that there are people actually saying Darfur. I see people in Gaza standing in solidarity. I see people in Ukraine telling me that this is what happened to them as well. for those of us dealing with all of these crises, none of us are free until all of us are free. A step forward for anywhere that is suffering right now is a step forward for all of humanity. And I think that if you believe that people should have three meals a day, if you believe that women and girls should be safe, if you believe that little boys can grow up, then you believe that the Darfur genocide should end and that the proxy war in Sudan should end as well.

7:52There are still people left in Al-Fashir They are being killed But there are hundreds of thousands that we can save If we act now Emi Mahmoud is a poet and humanitarian From Sudan's Darfur region Thank you Emi for your time And for sharing with us in this terrible moment Thank you so much

8:21That's the State of the World from NPR Thanks for listening