NEW YORK – Millions of Sudanese are fleeing the conflict that broke out in April 2023, and some are fleeing the immediate dangers of war just to fall victim to human trafficking networks, according to a report by the African Center for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJP). Another ACJPS report provides further details on the humanitarian situation in North Darfur after a series of attacks by the Paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
According to the first report released Tuesday, the trafficking network operates along escape routes used by Sudanese refugees, “using smuggling as a cover,” and subjecting various violence to victims, including sexual exploitation and forced labor. Sudanese women and girls are said to be at the most risk. Children, especially unaccompanied children, are at risk of “adduction, enslavement, or forced recruitment in an ongoing conflict.”
The ACJP argued that “the lack of state control and weak border surveillance” has encouraged the existence of these organized trafficking networks, adding that “some border guards are complicit in promoting these trafficking operations for bribery.”
The ACJPS report describes the difficult journeys taken by refugees, citing the dangers of deaths from hunger and thirst, and accidents being pursued by authorities. It also points to the challenges faced by refugees even after they arrive in host countries like Egypt, citing reported risks of detention and forced return.
As previously covered by Radiodabanga, many people who fled the war in Sudan died during a dangerous journey smuggling the road through the desert to Egypt. Refugees say they have been pushed to take illegal routes due to their long waiting times at the border.
In April 2024, Dhavanga reported that thousands of Sudanese refugees who fled to neighbouring Egypt were detained by Egyptian authorities in a network of secret military bases and repatriated to their war-torn country, where they often have no opportunity to claim asylum.
North Darfur Attack
The new ACJPS report will provide additional ground-based details on escalating hostility around Zamzam camp in North Darfur last week. The matter, released Tuesday, says the first attack on April 10 killed around 433 people. The subsequent attacks the following day are reportedly causing 400 more deaths.
As Radio Dhabanga previously reported, “at least 3 million” displaced civilians are fleeing westward, an overwhelming resource in the Tawira and Jebel Mara regions. The flow of newly evacuated and almost relocated people includes at least half a million former residents of the Samzam camp, which has been effectively wiped out.
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This report details targeting private infrastructure within camps. A medical facility run by Relief International reportedly was attacked and nine medical staff members were killed. Seventeen people were killed when schools in the Islamic Qur’an were fired.
These accounts from the ground support previous reports documenting the destruction of more than 1.7 square kilometres of camps, the execution of humanitarian workers, and targeting humanitarian and healthcare facilities by the RSF on April 16th.
ACJPS also states that after these attacks, hundreds of civilians fled from the Zamzam camp towards Tawila and are collaborating with the patterns of displacement observed through satellite images by satellite images (YHRL) showing convoys moving towards Tawila and Dahl as Salaam towards Tawila and Dahl.
The humanitarian situation within the Zamzam camp is said to be dire, and we are focusing on rising grocery prices. The camp has been hunger since August 2024.
