International Community Must Do More to Stop Sudan’s Humanitarian Catastrophe

Interview with Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health, conducted by Melinda Tuhus

sudan famine war

Another humanitarian crisis is underway in war-ravaged Sudan. Last October, the city of El Fasher in North Darfur in western Sudan fell to the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, the rebel army that’s been battling Sudan’s military since 2023. The year-and-a-half siege of El Fasher led to widespread starvation and then the genocide of tens of thousands of Black African residents of Darfur, including women and babies in the city’s maternity hospital.

Now, the city of El Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state in south-central Sudan, may also soon fall to the RSF.  After an 18-month blockade, more than 500,000 civilians in the city are in immediate jeopardy due to the RSF’s escalating attacks and intensive drone strikes.

Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health, has been using satellite imagery to investigate the humanitarian crisis in the contested region. Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Raymond, who explains how this potential catastrophe differs from the genocide committed against the people of El Fasher last year.  He also discusses which nations are supporting Sudan’s warring armies and what could be done to prevent another humanitarian disaster.

NATHANIEL RAYMOND: It’s a dire humanitarian crisis in El Obeid. And El Obeid is its own situation, its own problem. What the RSF is trying to do in El Obeid is not related to the people who live there, which was the case in El Fasher. It’s related to the strategic value of the road on the back end of El Obeid. El Obeid is a funnel. There’s one road in and one road out. That road that goes out of the city from the Southeast is currently controlled by the National Army of Sudan. And that road is very important because that road head at the back of El Obeid is the access point to the capital. Historically, El Obeid has been a stop on the Hajj for Muslims who have traveled from West Africa to Saudi Arabia for the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. So whoever controls El Obeid controls the road to Khartoum and Omdurman, the twin cities of the capital.

And so what RSF is trying to do is to recapture the approach to be able to threaten the capital where Sudan armed forces have control.

MELINDA TUHUS: This war in Sudan has been, in the Western media at least, portrayed as a civil war between the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese armed forces. I’ve been reading more recently that it’s been called a proxy war. I’ve been hearing that the United Arab Emirates are supporting the RSF with all kinds of military aid. Who’s supporting the Sudanese armed forces if this is in fact a proxy war?

NATHANIEL RAYMOND: Four nations are the primary backers: the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, and Iran. The Russians have played both sides and the Wagner mercenaries have supported RSF. Well, the Kremlin has publicly supported the Sudan armed forces in exchange for access to Red Sea basing for their naval fleet. This war could end in two weeks time if the United Arab Emirates pulled their support from the RSF. That doesn’t deal with the fact that the Sudan armed forces have also committed war crimes, though in this conflict they’ve not committed genocide, we assess. And so there’s the larger issue that the way the international community has handled this war by not addressing the backers of both sides and the weapon shipments has prevented a return to a transitional democratic government following the 2018, 2019 revolutionary period.
MELINDA TUHUS: In terms of what could be done, it just feels like these international organizations are completely impotent or just not interested. I mean, what could the UN do? What could the African Union do?
NATHANIEL RAYMOND: Well, the war isn’t ending for one reason. The U.S. and the United Kingdom have strategic defense partnerships with the UAE. The point is, as I testified to U.K. Parliament, that testimony discussed how the foreign office of the United Kingdom—which we’ve been deeply engaged with behind the scenes—had basically chosen to protect the relationship of the UAE over holding them accountable for arming a genocidal death squad.
MELINDA TUHUS: It’s not on most people’s radar, this whole issue. But if people do learn more about it, is there anything that people can do, like people in the U.S. for example?
NATHANIEL RAYMOND: There’s a lot people in the U.S. can do. If you watch the NBA finals with the Knicks, you would’ve seen Abu Dhabi, the logo of the capital of the United Arab Emirates on the uniforms and the Emirates Airline on the floor of the Madison Square Garden. You can do two things. If you’re listening to this and you’re angry and you don’t want the United States to be endorsing the impunity of warlords who have engaged in genocide, write to the NBA and write to the commissioner, Commissioner Silver, and tell him you want the NBA to end its partnership with the UAE.
And the second thing is to write to your member of Congress and tell them to work with Sen. Van Hollen and Congresswoman Jacob of San Diego on their legislation to block armed sales to the UAE and to work with Sen. Rich, Republican chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on his foreign terrorist organization designation for the Rapid Support Forces and their backers.

For more information, visit the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health at ysph.yale.edu/hrl.

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