The Dire Need for International Pressure to End the War in Sudan
The head of the Danish Refugee Council speaks about what she learned after meeting Sudanese refugees in Chad.
The brutal civil war in Sudan between the country’s military and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group has catalyzed one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises as millions contend with displacement and acute food insecurity. What’s happening in Sudan is widely considered to be a genocide, including by the United States, and it’s fueling regional instability.
To get a clearer picture of the scale of the dire humanitarian crisis, Foreign Policy spoke with Charlotte Slente, the secretary-general of the Danish Refugee Council, who recently traveled to eastern Chad and met with Sudanese refugees—including families who fled the city of El Fasher. The RSF has been accused of perpetrating a massacre in El Fasher, which it captured in October. The mass killings in the area were so extensive that what appeared to be piles of bodies and blood could reportedly be seen on satellite imagery.
The situation is “horrifying” and a “catastrophe,” Slente said, emphasizing that the refugees she spoke with are deeply traumatized and have borne witness to “things that no human being should ever be seeing.”
In the face of the daunting challenges presented by the crisis, Slente also discussed the need for sustained political pressure on the various parties involved in this “overlooked” conflict in order to bring an end to the fighting. “The passive stance of the international community for more than two years has allowed the world’s worst hunger crisis and displacement crisis to happen,” Slente said.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Foreign Policy: You recently traveled to eastern Chad. What did you see and learn?
Charlotte Slente: I was in the capital and the border area between Chad and Sudan for a few days. And I had the opportunity to meet some of the refugees who just came into Chad—refugees out of El Fasher. And then I visited some of what you could call the old camps—around two and a half years old, with some of the refugees who came at the very initial stages of the civil war in Sudan.
In terms of the human face of this, both of these situations were horrifying. The newcoming families we met have escaped a massacre of a dimension I don’t think we can even imagine—things that no human being should ever be seeing. People tell us about bombardments from the air, houses being burned down, leaving head over heels without anything with them.
A family I talked to, a young couple and their 2-year-old child—the young man’s brother was killed as they escaped. He was asked if he was from the opposing group and he said, “No, I’m just a civilian.” He was shot at close quarters with everyone observing it. Their 7-year-old boy was shot dead as well.
And that family told us about their route to Chad. They went through 40 checkpoints with a lot of violence happening. They were looted along the way. They were in such a state of shock—just blank faces.
Around 90,000 [people] have been able to escape, but there are still around 100,000 in El Fasher. What is their situation? I don’t think anyone really knows the conditions for these people. What we saw at the border, and what surprised many, is that relatively few were coming to Chad as of last week. At the different border crossings there were between 200 and 500 refugees coming in per day, and that was lower than the expected level.
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A humanitarian disaster is unfolding with a level of suffering that is very difficult to understand. I spoke to between 40 and 50 refugees. Many had been there for a little over two years. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a state of trauma to the degree that these people have experienced. So many [of them] were not even now, two years later, able to address their situations and what they had experienced.
Untreated trauma is taking place, despite active reporting mechanisms, including from us, and efforts to refer people to qualified psychological treatment and physical treatment. Many have also been raped and faced a lot of violence. A lot of people came with physical wounds from shootings or beatings. Everyone told stories relating to physical violence, and there was not one person who hadn’t experienced a very near relative being killed. It’s a totally overwhelming situation for these people.
FP: It sounds utterly horrifying.
CS: Yes.
But what else stood out was the enormous hospitality of Chad, a country extremely low on the human development index. Especially in the eastern part, there are extraordinary needs for people who lack access to any kind of services and infrastructure. There’s a degree of poverty that is quite remarkable. The host community to these refugee camps is sometimes worse off than the refugee camps themselves.
Chadians who’ve been living in Sudan have also returned to their home country on top of the roughly 800,000 Sudanese refugees who’ve fled into Chad with very deep needs. The refugees are catered to first. But many of the returning Chadians have not lived in Chad for decades. They don’t have anywhere to go. They’re facing similarly harsh conditions. So, this is a very big task for a country like Chad. It’s extremely important that the international community supports the role of Chad as host. If not, Chad at some stage will say: “Sorry guys, we cannot do this because it’s going to destabilize our own country.”
FP: As someone who has traveled to conflict zones across the globe, how does what’s happening in Sudan compare to other crises you’ve focused on in the course of your work?
CS: The crisis has been overlooked for so long, and it’s been devastating and horrendous right from the start. El Fasher is only one episode of many. And let us remember that there are still other places under siege. We have places like Kadugli under siege where similar things could happen.
We have a crisis in Sudan where 30 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance. It’s half the population—the largest figure in the history of humanitarian records in terms of an emergency crisis and the number of people affected. It is also the place where we have seen the largest number internally displaced on the planet. Over 10 million internally displaced inside Sudan. And 2.6 million refugees in neighboring countries.
And then we have the food security situation—almost 25 million people are faced with high levels of acute food insecurity. Twelve million people are estimated to be at risk of gender-based violence. The figures are of such a size that we cannot even imagine them.
That it took an incident like El Fasher that could actually be observed from outer space for the international communities to engage in this situation is horrendous. It’s been forgotten. Obviously, it’s also due to the fact that there have been many conflicts. Gaza and Ukraine have absorbed attention. But the fact is that there has not been sufficient political pressure here on the parties to stop the conflict and find a way for a cease-fire and negotiated path toward peace. There’s been an acceptance of total impunity, and that is what has pushed the crisis to its current state.
The passive stance of the international community for more than two years has allowed the world’s worst hunger crisis and displacement crisis to happen.
FP: Have aid cuts by the United States exacerbated the crisis? Did you see signs of that when you were in eastern Chad?
CS: Well, obviously. We have seen some very drastic cutbacks from the United States in a situation where U.S. assistance was also to a large degree lifesaving. And a very large proportion of the international support for the humanitarian crisis in Sudan was U.S.-funded before the cuts.
Yes, the international community has supported Sudan with economic and humanitarian assistance, but not at all to the degree needed. And let’s remember that humanitarian assistance is only dealing with the consequences of a conflict and not really addressing the root causes. The fact that we have only had action on managing consequences and not preventing them has actually made this crisis become much worse.
FP: To what extent have other countries, such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE), played a role in exacerbating this conflict?
CS: It’s very fair to say that there has been a geopolitical positioning by states, external states, that has exacerbated the local political conflict. That has resulted in gross violations of human rights, as we have seen in El Fasher. Sudan is not unique in that regard. We see this in a number of crises around the world—that you have all these proxies that have different kinds of interests and play all kinds of geopolitical games. Yemen is a very clear case in point. You could mention a handful of crises with similar characteristics where states have no accountability and responsibility whatsoever for the civilian population on the ground, whatsoever.
Sudan is a country where there are many interested parties that aren’t playing the role that they should be in terms of pressuring the actors on the ground to reach a cease-fire and construct peace. What we’re seeing is a lot of statements being issued. They have a very limited impact on the ongoing humanitarian needs of the population on the ground.
FP: The United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the UAE are working together—as part of a group known as the Quad—to push for an end to the war in Sudan. They’ve called for a humanitarian truce. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also called for action to stop the flow of arms to the RSF. Is this too little, too late?
CS: A lot of it is all a bit too little, too late. But that doesn’t mean that it’s not relevant, because there are other atrocities that could happen tomorrow in Sudan. We still need that international engagement to stop further atrocities from happening.
We need a very, very dedicated effort from the international community to try to make the parties stop this war or agree to a cease-fire. This is not a war that is going to end by military means. It needs a negotiated agreement between the parties. That will not be easy—it needs sustained pressure from all parties. And we don’t need five, six, seven, eight processes. We need a concerted action to put pressure on the parties, too.
FP: Is there anything you would like to add to help people better understand this crisis and what must be done to address it?
CS: The international community needs to put that pressure. But if you want sustained peace in Sudan, that sustained peace will need to be Sudanese-led. You need a process where Sudan buys into the premises and then really takes ownership for a process that leads to peace inside the country. And that is an even more difficult aspect than the international pressure part. So, it will require a sustained pressure, a sustained process with a lot of attention and support internationally for a long, long period of time.
There are also so many consequences from the war for ordinary civilian people that we need to deal with. It’s basically a massive trauma, a massive humanitarian disaster that we need to be alleviating from the international community side. Yes, assistance is needed inside Sudan, but also in the neighboring countries that are bearing the brunt of the hosting responsibility for all the refugees. Supporting neighboring countries like Chad and others is extremely important as well.
But what I really want to say is that the culture of impunity that we have been seeing is really, really devastating for international law and order, for respect for international humanitarian law. After Gaza, the situation in Sudan has seen the most violence for humanitarian workers. People are killed, abducted, subjected to all kinds of violence. It’s a very violent and difficult place to work. So, that respect for international humanitarian law needs to be restored again for civilians to access assistance.
And just to remind you about that figure on food insecurity. If people are undernourished for a long time, it will last generations to cure that. And the trauma that we are seeing will also last generations. So, it’s about getting in there and getting this conflict to stop.
John Haltiwanger is a staff writer at Foreign Policy. Bluesky: @jchaltiwanger.bsky.social X: @jchaltiwanger
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