The foreign ministers of Germany, Britain and Jordan said Sudan’s civil war is not getting enough attention because tens of thousands of people are at risk after the fall of El Fasher, according to AFP news agency.
More than 65,000 people have been evacuated since Darfur’s El Fasher was captured by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia last Sunday, according to the United Nations, but tens of thousands more remain in the city.
“Sudan is in a truly apocalyptic situation,” German Foreign Minister Johann Vardepoul said Saturday at the Manama Dialogue in Bahrain.
Fighting has raged in Sudan since 2023 between the military and its former ally, the RSF. The United Arab Emirates is accused of fueling the crisis by providing arms and other support to the RSF.
Speaking in Bahrain, British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “No amount of aid can solve a crisis of this scale until the guns have died down.”
“With mass executions, starvation, and the devastating use of rape as a weapon of war, women and children are bearing the brunt of the biggest humanitarian crisis of the 21st century,” Cooper added. “For too long, this terrible conflict has been ignored and the suffering has only increased.”
Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi also said that Sudan’s civil war does not receive enough attention.
“There is a humanitarian crisis of inhuman proportions there,” he said.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said those remaining in El Fasher remained in “grave danger” as RSF fighters prevented them from leaving the city.
MSF also announced that only 5,000 people made it to safety in Taouira, about 70 kilometers west of El Fasher. This number is significantly lower than the estimated 65,000 people evacuated from El Fasher.
Michel-Olivier Lacharité, MSF’s head of emergencies, said these numbers “while reports of mass atrocities are increasing, they do not add up.”
“Where on earth are all the missing people who survived months of starvation and violence in El Fasher?” he said. “Although frightening, the most likely answer is that they will be killed, stopped, and cornered as they try to escape.”