More than eight million people, most of them women and children, have been displaced within Sudan or forced into neighbouring states including the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, and South Sudan (OCHA, 2024). This number will likely rise as fighting continues.
The international community can put more pressure on the belligerents to stop the fighting and prevent it from expanding into areas where victims are displaced, including the Red Sea state. It can also push for the opening of safe corridors to deliver aid to millions of Sudanese stranded in conflict and displacement areas. A comprehensive peace process, incorporating aid, must, however, be seen within the broader political context, including the nature and history of the current conflict. The political fragmentation that resulted from the post-2019 transitional settlements, including but not limited to the JPA, is especially significant. The period saw belligerents pitted against Sudanese aspirations for a democratic civil transformation, for which thousands of prodemocracy youths died while calling for the return of the military to the barracks and the dissolution of the Janjaweed (Elmardi, 2023).
The brothers and sisters of those pro-democracy activists are now leading the network of community-based initiatives, in emergency response rooms and welcome shelter centres, and must be a key part of any aid plan. This means not only assisting these responders financially, but also putting them at the centre of the political and humanitarian debate, finding new, innovative, and braver ways to empower and form partnerships with them.
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