The foreign ministers of Germany, the United Kingdom and Jordan said that not enough attention had been paid to the war in Sudan as thousands of people were in danger following the fall of al-Fashar.
More than 65,000 people have fled al-Fashar in Darfur after it was captured by the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary (RSF) last Sunday, but thousands are still in the town, according to the United Nations.
“Sudan is an absolutely apocalyptic situation,” German Foreign Minister Johann Wadeful said at the Manama Dialogue in Bahrain on Saturday.
Aid alone cannot solve the crisis – Britain’s Foreign Minister
Sudan has been fighting since 2023 between the army and its former ally, the RSF. The UAE has been accused of fueling the crisis by providing weapons and other support to the RSF.
Speaking in Bahrain, British Foreign Minister Yvette Cooper said, “No amount of aid can solve a crisis of this magnitude until the guns are silenced.”
“Through mass executions, starvation and the devastating use of rape as a weapon of war, women and children are bearing the brunt of the greatest humanitarian crisis of the 21st century,” Cooper said. “For too long, this terrible conflict has been ignored, while the suffering has only increased.”
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi also said that the civil war in Sudan has not received enough attention.
“There is a humanitarian crisis of inhumane proportions,” he said.
MSF says civilians are in grave danger
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said those remaining in al-Fashar are in “grave danger” as RSF fighters have prevented them from escaping the town.
But medical NGOs are also afraid of those who have fled the city.
MSF also said that only 5,000 people had managed to reach safety in Tawila, about 70 kilometers (45 mi) west of al-Fashar. This number is significantly lower than the estimated 65,000 who fled al-Fashar.
Michel Oliver Lacharite, MSF’s head of emergencies, said these numbers “do not add up, while incidents of mass atrocities are increasing.”
“Where are all the missing people who have already escaped months of famine and violence in al-Fashar?” He said. “The most likely, although frightening, answer is that they are being killed, blocked and hunted while trying to escape.”
Edited by: Shawn Sinico