Sudan is now the country with the largest number of displaced people and the largest child displacement crisis in the world.
The people of Sudan have endured the impacts of a violent war that began in April 2023, with violence escalating since December 15th when one of the warring parties launched an attack on Wad Madani, a town in northern Al Jazira state.
The town had previously been largely unaffected and had provided a refuge for around half a million displaced people from Khartoum. However, the incursion has led to a new wave of families being forced from their homes. As a result, the International Rescue Committee and other humanitarian organizations have had to relocate their staff to safer areas.
The ongoing war has caused immense suffering to the people, with over 13,9000 lives lost.
The situation has also led to the displacement of approximately 9 million people within the country, making it the largest internal displacement crisis in the world. The most affected are children, accounting for half of the displaced population and facing severe impacts on their health and education.
What is happening to children in Sudan?
Since mid-April 2023, heavy fighting in Sudan’s capital has upended the lives of millions of children. "The staggering statistic of 14 million children in Sudan, half of all children in the country requiring humanitarian aid is a stark reminder of the urgent need for collective action,” says Shashwat Saraf, the IRC’s regional emergency director in East Africa. “Every child deserves a chance to have a secure and healthy future.”
Soaring rates of malnutrition
Extreme levels of food insecurity and malnutrition are affecting close to 18 million people, making Sudan one of the worst food insecurity emergencies in the world.With high prices for food and low income, many families are struggling to meet their basic needs. are making it increasingly difficult for families to get what they need to survive.
Moreover, the cost of living is skyrocketing and the inflation rate is estimated to exceed 300%, resulting in a food and essential goods shortage for millions of people.
Even before the start of the conflict, some 3 million children under 5 suffered from acute malnutrition. But the situation has worsened with tens of thousands of families on the move now finding themselves at risk of not having enough food or good nutrition.
In addition to the food and malnutrition crisis, families are also facing limited access to essential services like basic healthcare, safe and adequate water, and sanitation services. Sudan is now grappling with a severe cholera outbreak, as more than 10,000 cases and nearly 300 deaths have been reported across several states.
One in every three children are out of school
One in every three children in the country around 6.5 million have lost access to school due to increased violence and insecurity in their region, with at least 10,400 schools shuttered in conflict-affected areas.
Additionally, over 5.5 million children who live in areas less impacted by war are currently waiting for local authorities to confirm whether schools can be reopened. This leaves them in a state of uncertainty and further prolongs the disruption to their education.
Conflict and poverty have resulted in nearly 7 million children being out of school in Sudan. With the ongoing war, it is predicted that no child in the country will be able to return to school in the coming months, exposing them to immediate and long-term dangers including displacement, recruitment by armed groups and sexual violence
Over 1.4 million asylum seekers have sought refuge in neighboring countries since April 2023. The IRC has expanded our critical services to support Sudanese refugees, including in Chad, Ethiopia and South Sudan.
More than 565,000 people have crossed the border into Chad which already hosted 400,000 Sudanese refugees prior to the outbreak of conflict in April. Ninety percent of people arriving across the borders are women and children, with one-fifth of young children experiencing acute malnutrition.
“The fact that women and children make up such a large proportion of the new arrivals in Chad is particularly worrying because they are often the most vulnerable groups in conflict situations,” explains IRC Chad country director, Aleksandra Roulet-Cimpric. “Women and children are at greater risk of violence, exploitation, and abuse, and they may also face difficulties accessing basic necessities such as food, water and healthcare.”
In Chad, the IRC is providing drinking water and running mobile health clinics to attend to the vast health needs of the arriving population. In addition to providing immediate relief, the IRC is working to scale up its support in the areas of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), health, and protection. This includes providing access to safe water and sanitation facilities, as well as promoting good hygiene practices to prevent the spread of disease.
GPS is being blocked across swathes of Israel in order to disrupt missiles and drones, as tensions rise with Iran.
Iran has vowed to respond after a strike on its consulate building in Syria on Monday - which Israel was widely believed to be behind - killed 13 people, including a senior general.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) also announced it was halting all leave for soldiers serving with combat units.
It comes a day after reservists were called up to bolster air defence units.
Israeli authorities seem to believe an Iranian response is imminent and could come as soon as Friday, which is Quds Day - or Jerusalem Day - the last Friday in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
It is a day which has frequently been used to stage pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel rallies, particularly in Iran.
On Thursday, GPS systems were being disrupted in central parts of Israel, a defensive measure designed to interfere with weapons which rely on it to set their location.
Israeli citizens reported being unable to use location-based app services in major cities like Tel Aviv and Jerusalem far from active combat zones.
Monitoring website GPSJAM showed widespread interference with location signals across Israel.
A BBC producer said her GPS had located her in Cairo when she was in Jerusalem, and other users have shared similar accounts on social media.
IDF spokesman Rear Adm Daniel Hagari confirmed the country is using GPS blocking - which is sometimes referred to as "spoofing".
Israelis have been urged to manually set their location on the app which issues alerts about incoming rocket attacks to ensure it remains accurate amid the GPS interference, the Times of Israel reported.
GPS is already disrupted in northern Israel, near the border with Lebanon, where Israel and the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah have exchanged fire almost daily for the last six months.
Separately, the IDF has urged people not to panic buy. Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Rear Adm Hagari said: "There is no need to buy generators, store food and withdraw money from ATMs.
"As we have done until today, we will immediately update any change if it is in an official and orderly manner."
Media outlets in Israel reported some of the country's embassies had been placed on alert or evacuated over potential Iranian attacks. The BBC has not independently verified those reports and Israel has not confirmed them.
Israel has not commented on the targeting of a building on Iran's diplomatic compound in Damascus, the capital of Syria, but has been blamed by the country's leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi previously said the strike would "not go unanswered", though it is unclear what actions Iran could take in response.
Among the 13 people killed in the strike were seven officers in Iran's Revolutionary Guards, including senior general Mohammad Reza Zahedi and his deputy.
Zahedi is one of the most high-profile Iranian figures believed to have been killed by Israel in the country's long campaign of targeted assassinations.
Israel has previously acknowledged carrying out strikes in Syria on targets it says are linked to Iran or its allied armed groups.
Speaking at a meeting of the security cabinet on Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel is "acting against Iran and its proxies, defensively and offensively".
He continued: "We will know how to defend ourselves and we will act according to the simple principle of whoever harms us or plans to harm us, we will harm them."
Meanwhile, Israel continued to come under international pressure over the killing of seven aid workers operating in Gaza on Monday.
The founder of the group whose workers were killed in apparent drone strikes said they had been targeted "systematically, car by car".
The deaths have prompted other aid groups to stop deliveries into northern Gaza over fears for the safety of their staff.
IDF Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi apologised and said the incident happened because of misidentification, calling it a "grave mistake".
US President Joe Biden told Mr Netanyahu the killing of the aid workers and overall humanitarian situation in Gaza were "unacceptable".
Mr Biden urged the prime minister to agree to an immediate ceasefire and "made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete, and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers", adding that "US policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel's immediate action on these steps".
United Nations staff members inspect the remains of the car used by U.S.-based aid group World Central Kitchen that was hit by an Israeli strike the previous day in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on April 2, 2024.
The charity said in a statement that it had completed a delivery of 100 tons of food aid to a warehouse in Deir al-Balah, and that a convoy of two armored cars with the group’s logo was leaving the site when it was struck.
The World Central Kitchen said the group had coordinated its movements in advance with the Israeli military. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged that the country's forces had carried out the "unintended strike ... on innocent people."
RevenuesBoost: If I see a human being that isn't handicapped, begging, it pisses me off.
It's okay to ask for help from a close friend, stranger or relative once in a while, but it's nice not okay to sleep all day and expect manna to fall from heaven.
Get up, use your hands to feed yourself It's okay to learn a skill or get a loan to start up a small business. If everyone is lazy and sleeping, then no one will work. Everyone likes sleep too.
Armed Robbers Attack Nigerian Journalist, Other Road Users On Lagos Highway, Steal Money, Phones
A Lagos-based freelance journalist and former staff member of WAZOBIA FM, Ogunleke Clement along with some other road users was attacked on Wednesday by armed robbers between Berger bus stop and Otedola Bridge on the Lagos- Ibadan Expressway.
Videos and pictures made available to SaharaReporters show the bloodied journalist receiving treatment at a medical facility after the attack.
The journalist, in an audio clip obtained by SaharaReporters, also added that the robbery was carried out by six young men who were armed with guns, machetes and bottles.
He, however, berated the absence of security operatives on major roads in the state to avert such incidents.
Mr Clement said the armed robbers stole his phones and all the money he had on him. He added that the armed men also robbed other passengers on the road.
Narrating his ordeal, he said, “I actually had a robbery attack between Berger and Otedola Bridge. It was not really easy. It showed that there is no safe place in this country.
“The security agency really failed me seriously. It is not really easy. Within that place, I didn't see anybody to really help me out. I went through all the hospitals around that, through Magodo, with no security at all.
“I was robbed and butchered somehow with guns, cutlasses and bottles; they were like six guys. My phones and my wallet were taken from me - with money, a lot of money.
“I was actually coming from an event. My grandmother died and we had to hurry and be fast because it is a Muslim burial. We had to bury her the following day. So on my way there, I had to go to work. Right now, I am a freelance in media and publicity.
“It is not that easy; I am seriously feeling pain. I just want to say one or two things to Nigerians - you are the security of yourself. Be vigilant, be very careful. In this period, things are not smiling.
“The way Nigeria is, the price of everything is high. A lot of youth and young people, they are into a lot of atrocities, robbery and the rest because I saw young men coming towards me. Two cars away, they macheted a lot of people. I don't know where the rest of the passengers have been or something, but I just have to save my life.”
Tens of thousands of people have fled the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, to escape a surge in gang violence over the past weeks. UN figures suggest more than 53,000 left the city of 3m between 8-27 March.
The UN is warning that the rural regions to which many have fled are not equipped to deal with such a large influx of displaced people.
Meanwhile, gangs are attacking businesses in the capital, torching pharmacies and vandalising schools.
Haiti's national police succeeded in repelling an attack on the presidential palace on Monday but armed men stormed the nearby State University of Haiti hospital, known by its initials HUEH, to use it as their command centre.
HUEH had closed last month due to the violence and was meant to reopen on Monday.
Haiti's national police succeeded in repelling an attack on the presidential palace on Monday but armed men stormed the nearby State University of Haiti hospital, known by its initials HUEH, to use it as their command centre.
HUEH had closed last month due to the violence and was meant to reopen on Monday.
The damage caused by the gangs is likely to further delay its reopening.
Access to healthcare, which was already severely restricted, has become even more difficult after armed men looted a hospital in the Delmas 18 neighbourhood and the Saint-Martin health centre last week.
Criminal gangs control not only the main port in Port-au-Prince but also many of the city's access roads, making it difficult to transport medical supplies.
While the situation in the capital's hospitals is dire, the UN has warned that the arrival of tens of thousands of displaced people in rural areas poorly equipped to deal with it also poses severe challenges.
Most of those fleeing Port-au-Prince have headed south, to areas which are still ravaged by the 2021 earthquake, which killed more than 2,000 people.
"It should be emphasized that [these] provinces do not have sufficient infrastructure and host communities do not have sufficient resources that can enable them to cope with these massive displacement flows coming from the capital," the UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Tuesday.
While Haiti has been facing a humanitarian crisis for years, the recent surge in violence started at the end of February when Prime Minister Ariel Henry travelled to Kenya to seal a deal for the African nation to lead a multinational security force.
The capital's warring criminal gangs united in an uneasy alliance to oust the prime minister.
Mr Henry was prevented from returning to the country as the gangs attacked the international airport, forcing its closure.
He agreed last month to step aside as soon as transitional presidential council was created.
The council issued its first official statement last week, promising to restore "public and democratic order", but it has yet to take any concrete actions.
Meanwhile, violent attacks in the capital resumed this week after a relative lull over Easter.
Deborah Samuel's Killers Faced Camera, Bragged And Held A Matchbox – Amnesty International Slams Nigerian Government For Not Prosecuting Culprits Since 2022
Global human rights body, the Amnesty International, has decried the failure of the Nigerian authorities to hold to account killers' of Deborah Samuel over alleged blasphemy more than one year after she was lynched by school mates.
Describing the latent behaviour of the government on violent crimes, the global rights organisation, stated that the consistent failure of the Nigerian government to tackle violence in the name of religion has effectively sent the message that anyone could commit murder and get away with it.
Amnesty International which stated this in statement posted on its X (formerly Twitter) handle on Monday, regretted that despite the fact that the killers of Deborah Samuel did not hide their faces in camera while committing the heinous crime, yet the State finds it difficult to bring them to justice since May 12, 2022.
The statement partly read: "#Deborah Samuel was lynched by her school mates over alleged #blasphemy on 12 May 2022 in #Sokoto. More than a year after, the Nigerian authorities have failed to hold her killers to account.
"In a flagrant show of utter disdain for the sanctity of life and impunity, a video footage of a raging fire and a man facing the camera, bragging that he killed and burnt Deborah Samuel — while also brandishing a matchbox was widely shared on social media.
"Consistent failure of the #Nigerian government to tackle violence in the name of religion has effectively sent the message that anyone can commit outrageous abuses and get away with it. This is unacceptable," it stated.
Attacking another country embassy is an act of war, Israel should be careful not to plunge the entire region into chaos
To Nigerians always pushing Israel into a fight, They should know that whatever happens between Israel and Iran in the middle east will somehow affect us economically as well.
Iran has vowed to retaliate against Israel and the United States in response to an airstrike in Syria which killed a group of Tehran’s senior commanders.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) confirmed that seven officers, including brigadier generals Mohammad Reza Zahedi and Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi, were killed in the airstrike on the Iranian consulate building in Damascus on Monday.
Zahedi was a senior commander with the Quds Force – the IRGC unit tasked with operations overseas – and Rahimi was his deputy, RT reports.
Officials in Syria and Iran have blamed Israel for the attack. "The Islamic Republic of Iran, while reserving its rights to take countermeasures, decides on the type of reaction and punishment of the aggressor,” Foreign Ministry spokesman, Nasser Kanaani, said in a statement quoted by the IRNA news agency.
Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, warned on social media that Israel’s close ally the US “must be held accountable.”
Israel has not commented on the strike. The Israeli government rarely publicly acknowledges airstrikes in Syria, which Damascus has repeatedly denounced as violations of its sovereignty.
The Jewish state has accused Iran of masterminding the deadly October 7 attack on Israeli citizens, which kickstarted the ongoing war with the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Last month, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) struck what it said were Iran-linked militants in Lebanon.
Foreign Affairs › Re: War In Sudan: Over 9 Million People Displaced by God1000(op): 8:40pm On Apr 05, 2024
I will gladly go and protect my African brothers and sisters in Sudan
