Sudan has experienced a catastrophic increase in violence since 15 April. Heavy fighting between the RSF (Rapid Support Forces) paramilitary force and the SAF (Sudan Armed Forces) for control of the country – and its resources – is severely impacting the lives of most of Sudan’s population.
The current violence has added to the already huge need for humanitarian assistance, creating many more obstacles to providing it. Thousands of people have fled the country, and millions are displaced. The banking system has collapsed in parts of the country, internet and mobile networks are down or weak, and movement of food (including aid) across the country is blocked – in late April, pictures circulated of the Khartoum branch of the Central Bank of Sudan (CBoS) on fire – vividly symbolizing the collapse of Sudan’s financial system. Many banks closed, so cash withdrawals were no longer possible. Digital money transfers became difficult. For many people, this has affected access to income, savings, remittances, and humanitarian aid.
The destruction of Sudan’s formal financial system also contributes to the risk of famine and starvation. The destruction of the CBoS and communications shutdowns have made money transfers almost impossible, from outside or within the country. This combines with the disappearance of state services – water, electricity, health care, fuel – impeding people’s access to objects essential for survival. Markets were initially supplied by food stored by traders and later with looted goods.
Given these limitations, most will be excluded from international humanitarian assistance, which faces numerous obstacles. Less than 7% of those needing food assistance had received any by the end of June. In contrast, local civil society actors, such as the neighbourhood committees and their ‘emergency rooms’, have provided safe passage out of Khartoum, emergency medical care, and cooked food for those who needed it. These efforts are currently small-scale, but how these groups operate, and ways of supporting them need to be explored urgently.
What can be done?
When lives are at risk, the humanitarian imperative is to respond. A combination of cash responses should be part of the response. For example, banks can partner with fin-tech companies, credit vouchers through telecom companies, and support traditional Hawala. All of this will depend on the functioning of markets, financial institutions, and telecoms. Ideally, an independent civilian-run central bank will be created, but this will not be easy to implement given the current military regime.
Huge issues must be addressed to halt the violence and work towards a civilian democratic government. People cannot simply be provided with cash (or food) and then left to fend for themselves. Humanitarian assistance (including negotiations for humanitarian corridors) has to be part of a broader interconnected package of transforming the country’s political economy, including a citizen-centered security sector, compatible with the democratic transition.
Genuine peace needs to be negotiated through inclusive dialogue instead of the prevailing modality of power-sharing between warring elites who have created Sudan’s extractive political economy.
Internationally led neoliberal policies (lifting subsidies, currency devaluation, austerity measures) eroded the legitimacy of the 2019 revolution, facilitated the 2021 coup, and should be abandoned.
Until these structural issues are addressed, humanitarian assistance will be needed – and will be manipulated by those in power. Supporting civil society, particularly ‘emergency rooms’ and local NGOs, will be necessary, as is holding the RSF accountable for war crimes in Darfur.
— By Susanne Jaspars and Tamer Abd Elkreem
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