The world’s “indifference” towards the war in Sudan was “truly shocking”, former president Mary Robinson has said.
The country is now more than 500 days into a brutal war, which erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group.
Humanitarian organisations say hunger is being used as a weapon of war, with the hunger crisis in the country now the world’s largest.
Over 25 million people – more than half the population – are suffering from acute food insecurity, and famine has been declared in one area near the city of El Fasher in Darfur.
The death toll from the war could be as high as 150,000.
Speaking at an emergency briefing on the crisis on Monday in Dublin, Ms Robinson, who is chair of international organisation The Elders, said what was happening in Sudan was “appalling and what is even more appalling is the lack of world attention.
[ UN mission says both Sudan sides committed abuses, calls for peacekeepersOpens in new window ]
“You could almost say indifference, which is truly shocking. There should be far more attention to this crisis and it is so neglected,” she told reporters.
Ireland had a “deserved reputation for addressing global hunger and our voice needs to be heard at the highest level later this month,” she said, as the United Nations General Assembly and Summit of the Future were both upcoming in New York.
“While serving as the UN special envoy, I became particularly aware of the strategic importance of Sudan as an African country with so many borders,” she said, adding that some nations were “benefiting from the state of conflict and actually exacerbating it”.
Ms Robinson welcomed recent calls by the UN for an international peacekeeping force.
She was speaking in reference to a UN-mandated mission which said both sides in Sudan’s civil war had committed abuses that may amount to war crimes, and world powers need to send in peacekeepers and widen an arms embargo to protect civilians.
Robinson urged “far more attention” on the conflict.
The role women could play in ending the conflict could not be underestimated, she said, highlighting the efforts of Sudanese women who were helping in their own communities through emergency kitchens and other initiatives.
“Far too much of peacekeeping nowadays is the bad men coming together in front of television lights and semi-making peace and then reneging on it,” she added.
[ Hunger being used as weapon in Sudan war, humanitarian organisations sayOpens in new window ]
Speaking at the same briefing, chief executive of GOAL, Siobhan Walsh, said the scale and depth of the crisis was still “to an extent invisible to the world”.
“The number of malnourished children is growing every day ... The conflict is growing and so is the problem of child soldiers. Functioning humanitarian corridors are urgently needed to prevent people from dying,” she said.
“A political solution is needed to end this conflict and we all need to do more,” Ms Walsh added.
David Regan, chief executive of Concern Worldwide said Concern teams in Darfur and Kordofan were reporting “a rapid deterioration in the condition of children presenting at health facilities”.
Yet only 40 per cent of the aid required has been committed, and Un-led efforts to deliver supplies were “insufficient and hampered by inadequate system and bureaucracy,” he said.
“Donors including Ireland must seek alternative approaches to deliver the urgently needed aid that is funded, and also increase the funding.”
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Listen to our Inside Politics podcast for the best political chat and analysis
