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1 1 (November 12, 2024)

handle is hein.crs/govergr0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Research Service Informinq the legislitive debate since 1914 November 12, 2024 The War and Humanitarian Crisis in Sudan The conflict in Sudan that began in 2023 between rival elements of the security forces has fueled the world's largest displacement crisis and largest hunger crisis. The war has pushed over 11 million people from their homes. More than half the population, over 25 million people, reportedly face acute food insecurity, including 1.5 million at risk of or facing famine. The warring parties have been implicated in atrocity crimes and other gross human rights abuses. Fatality figures are not reliable, given access constraints, but by some estimates as many as 150,000 people may have died in the first year of the conflict alone. The war that began as a fight for power between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF, the military) and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has roots in how Sudan has been ruled, primarily by military regimes and central elites, since independence. Islamist military leader Omar al Bashir, who took power in a 1989 coup, faced multiple rebellions in the marginalized peripheries. He armed Sudanese Arab militias known as the Janjaweed to help the SAF counter rebels in the western Darfur region in the early 2000s, and the United States, among others, labeled their atrocities against non- Arab communities genocide. Bashir formed the RSF from the Janjaweed to counter other insurgencies, allowing it to seize gold mines and other assets, and deployed it to Yemen as part of the Gulf-led coalition fighting the Houthi rebels, which provided revenue that bolstered the RSF's autonomy. Sudan's security chiefs used pro-democracy protests in 2019 as justification to oust Bashir, with reported support from some Arab countries. The junta, led by the SAF's Abdel Fattah al Burhan and RSF's Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, aka Hemedti, resisted handing power to civilians, but later conceded under pressure to share power with a civilian-led transitional government (CLTG). It led reforms and secured U.S. sanctions relief and international debt relief. The SAF and RSF generals usurped power from the CLTG in 2021 (Sudan's sixth coup since independence) and violently suppressed ensuing mass protests. Under growing pressure to restore civilian authority and merge their forces in security sector reforms, a long-simmering rivalry between the SAF and RSF erupted in April 2023. Over 18 months later, the SAF and RSF continue to fight over the war-torn capital, Khartoum, and its adjacent cities, once home to 10 million people. SAF-held Port Sudan now serves as the de facto capital. As the conflict has spread, rebels, former rebels, and communities are being drawn into an increasingly complex civil war. The RSF took control of much of Darfur in late 2023 and has besieged El Fasher, the North Darfur capital where the SAF fights to hold its last garrison in the region. Fighters from non-Arab groups like the Zaghawa, once targeted by the Janjaweed, have aligned with the SAF to defend the area. The RSF has also advanced southeast in 2024, disrupting farming in Sudan's agricultural heartland and fueling further displacement. Figure I. Map of Sudan In otn coro ~ Sume~eAtme Fotes apidSupo Forces Source: CRS graphic, with approximate areas of control based on mapping by Sudan War Monitor, Thomas Van Linge, and others. Famine and Aid Access Constra nts Despite denials by the junta, experts confirm that famine- possibly the worst in decades-is unfolding in Sudan. Some humanitarians have described the aid response as deeply inadequate. UN officials cite funding shortfalls and access restrictions, including attacks on aid workers and health facilities, bureaucratic impediments, and operational interference. Experts have accused both warring parties of using starvation as a weapon. The SAF has restricted access to RSF-occupied areas, and, in early 2024, ordered aid agencies to stop cross-border operations into Darfur. Under diplomatic pressure, the junta authorized a temporary opening in August, but only a fraction of the aid needed has since been allowed in. The RSF has also limited access, looted aid supplies, and laid siege to SAF-held urban areas. Atrocty Crimes and Other Abuses Grave abuses have been reported during the war, including attacks by the RSF and allied militia in West Darfur that experts say have systematically targeted ethnic Masalit and other non-Arabs. The State Department has determined that the RSF and SAF have committed war crimes and members of the RSF and allied militia have committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing. The UN-authorized Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan made similar findings, and documented ethnic-based attacks, killings, torture, the use of child soldiers, airstrikes and indiscriminate shelling on civilians, and the destruction of civilian infrastructure. The Mission has also highlighted large-scale sexual violence by the RSF, noting similar patterns in RSF attacks in Darfur and southeast Gezira state, where the RSF has been implicated in mass killings.

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