At the Munich Security Conference in February a senior UN official described the war in Sudan as “not a forgotten crisis, but a wholly ignored crisis”. And yet the impact of 10 months of fighting is huge - nearly eight million people have had to leave their homes, more than in any other current conflict. Just last week the UN pointed to multiple indiscriminate attacks by both the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in densely-populated areas. So who is keeping the war going and why? Is it a conflict that will be fought to exhaustion or is there any hope of a negotiated settlement? And does the appointment of a new US Special Envoy for Sudan this week suggest that the world is ready to stop ignoring Sudan? Shaun Ley is joined by a panel of experts: Azza Aziz, a Sudanese anthropologist who was in Khartoum at the outbreak of the war and returned to London in January; Alex de Waal, executive director of the World Peace Foundation and a research professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University in Massachusetts; Kholood Khair, a Sudanese political analyst and the founding director of Confluence Advisory, a "think-and-do" tank based in Khartoum. She left Sudan soon after the outbreak of the war and is now based in the UK. (Photo: A Sudanese woman, who fled the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, walks beside carts carrying her family belongings, 2 August, 2023. Credit: Zohra Bensemra/Reuters)
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And this week, not a forgotten crisis, but a wholly ignored crisis.
The words of a senior UN official talking about Sudan's 10 month long civil war at the annual gathering of the world's securocrats in Munich in February.
Impossible to ignore for the 8 million driven from their homes by the fighting.
The largest forced migration in any current conflict, despite a communications blackout.
We'll hear what things are like from those who've managed to escape the killing.
Who's keeping the war going?
Just the combatants?
Or are there more shadowy forces with a stake in Sudan's fate?
Does the appointment of a new US special envoy this week offer hope of fresh momentum in negotiations for peace?
At the very least, does it suggest the world will stop ignoring Sudan?
Just last week the UN pointed to multiple indiscriminate attacks by both the Sudanese armed forces and the Rapid Support Forces, or rsf, in densely populated areas.
This is what Saif Magango of the UN told the BBC.
The toll on civilians has been horrific.
In this report alone, we are seeing attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure across the country from Khartoum, Omdurman, northern Kurdofan, Darfur.