Study Indicates Sudan Civil War Fatalities Significantly Exceed Prior Estimates

A recent study indicates that the death toll from Sudan’s civil war is considerably greater than earlier figures suggested. The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine’s Sudan Research Group issued a report stating that over 61,000 individuals have died in Khartoum state, the location where the conflict commenced last year. The report specified that 26,000 of these deaths were a direct consequence of the violence, while also highlighting that preventable disease and starvation constituted the primary causes of mortality throughout Sudan. Substantially more fatalities have occurred in other parts of the nation, particularly in the western Darfur region, which has been the subject of numerous accounts of atrocities and ethnic cleansing. Humanitarian organizations assert that the 19-month conflict in Sudan has led to the planet’s most severe humanitarian crisis, placing many thousands of people in jeopardy of famine. Previously, the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations cited a figure of 20,000 confirmed deaths. The ongoing conflict and disorder within the country have prevented any systematic documentation of the total number of fatalities. In May, Tom Perriello, the US special envoy for Sudan, mentioned that certain projections indicated as many as 150,000 deaths. The release of the Sudan Research Group’s study coincides with a statement from Amnesty International, which reported that French military technology is being employed in the conflict, contravening a UN arms embargo. On Thursday, the human rights organization stated that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia, currently engaged in combat with the army, is utilizing vehicles in Darfur that were provided by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and equipped with French components. Amnesty’s Secretary General Agnès Callamard stated, “Our research shows that weaponry designed and manufactured in France is in active use on the battlefield in Sudan.” The BBC has sought responses from France and the UAE; the latter has previously refuted claims of supplying arms to the RSF. The Galix defence system, produced in France by KNDS and Lacroix, is designed for land forces to assist in repelling close-range assaults. Amnesty asserted that these weapons possess the potential to be utilized for or to facilitate grave human rights violations, further stating that the French government is obligated to guarantee that the companies “immediately stop the supply of this system to the UAE.” The human rights organization disseminated images, which it affirmed to have verified, depicting destroyed vehicles on the ground that clearly displayed the Galix system. It noted a long-standing collaboration between the UAE and France in the defense industry and referenced a parliamentary report that indicated French firms supplied approximately 2.6 billion euros ($2.74 billion; £2.16 billion) worth of military equipment to the UAE from 2014 to 2023. It emphasized that these companies bear a responsibility to uphold human rights and to perform “due diligence throughout their entire value chain.” Amnesty reported that it had reached out to the implicated companies and the French authorities concerning the deployment of the defense system but had not received any reply. The organization stated, “If France cannot guarantee through export controls, including end user certification, that arms will not be re-exported to Sudan, it should not authorise those transfers.” The UN initially instituted an arms embargo in Darfur in 2004, prompted by accusations of ethnic cleansing targeting the region’s non-Arabic inhabitants. Amnesty has advocated for the embargo’s extension to encompass the entirety of Sudan and for its monitoring framework to be reinforced subsequent to the civil war’s commencement. Amnesty has implored all nations to cease both direct and indirect provision of arms to Sudan’s warring factions. The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), commanded by General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has been engaged in conflict with Sudan’s regular army, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, since April 2023, when these two erstwhile allies initiated hostilities against one another in an intense struggle for power. The RSF has faced accusations of ethnic cleansing in Darfur, allegations it has refuted, attributing responsibility to local militias. Both sides have been charged with perpetrating war crimes, and the continuing hostilities have resulted in thousands of deaths and millions of displacements. In August, a committee of experts supported by the UN announced famine conditions in specific areas of Darfur. The director-general of the UN World Health Organization (WHO) stated that starvation was “almost everywhere” after visiting the country a month subsequent to the famine declaration. “The situation in Sudan is very alarming… the massive displacement – it’s now the largest in the world, and, of course, famine,” Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus subsequently informed the BBC. Nevertheless, the combination of conflict, food scarcity, population displacement, and illness in Sudan has received less international attention due to the ongoing wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. The Sudan Research Group’s investigation revealed that 90% of fatalities in Khartoum went undocumented, suggesting a potentially comparable scenario in other areas. However, Mayson Dahab, the lead researcher, indicated that they lacked adequate data to assess mortality rates in other areas of the country or to ascertain the total number of deaths attributable to the conflict.