Sudan's warring sides target local aid volunteers fighting famine

Local volunteers who have helped to feed Sudan's most destitute during 17 months of war say attacks against them by the opposing sides are making it difficult to provide life-saving aid amid the world's biggest hunger crisis.



Many volunteers have fled under threat of arrest or violence, and communal kitchens they set up in a country where hundreds are estimated to be dying of starvation and hunger-related diseases each day have stopped serving meals for weeks at a time.



Reuters spoke with 24 volunteers who manage kitchens in Sudan's central state of Khartoum, the western region of Darfur and parts of the east where millions of people have been driven from their homes since fighting erupted between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).



International humanitarian agencies, which have been unable to get food aid to parts of Sudan at risk of famine, have ramped up support for such groups. But that has made them more of a target for RSF looters, 10 of the volunteers told Reuters by phone.

"We were safe when the RSF didn't know about the funding," said Gihad Salaheldin, a volunteer who left Khartoum city last year and spoke from Cairo. "They see our kitchens as a source of food."



Both sides have also attacked or detained volunteers on suspicion of collaborating with their opponents, a dozen volunteers said.



Most of the volunteers spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.



One volunteer in Bahri, a city that together with Khartoum and Omdurman makes up Sudan's greater capital, said troops in RSF uniforms stole the phone he used to receive donations via a mobile banking app along with 3 million Sudanese pounds (US$1 200) in cash intended for food in June.



It was one of five incidents this year in which he says he was attacked or harassed by paramilitary troops who control neighbourhoods where he oversees 21 kitchens serving around 10 000 people.



Later that month, troops burst into a home housing one of the kitchens in the middle of the night and stole sacks of sorghum and beans. The volunteer, who had been sleeping there, said he was bound, gagged and whipped for hours by troops who wanted to know who was funding the group.



Reuters could not independently verify his account, but three other volunteers said that he reported the events to the rest of the group at the time.



The frequency of such incidents increased as international funding for communal kitchens picked up heading into the summer, according to eight volunteers from Khartoum state, which is mostly controlled by the RSF.



Theft and beatings



Many kitchens do not keep data on attacks, while others declined to provide details for fear of drawing more unwanted attention. However, volunteers described to Reuters 25 incidents targeting their kitchens or volunteers in the state since July alone, including more thefts and beatings and the detention of at least 52 people.



Groups that run kitchens there have announced the deaths of at least three volunteers in armed attacks, including one they said was shot and killed by RSF troops in Khartoum's Shajarah neighbourhood in September. The identities of the other assailants were not immediately clear, and Reuters could not verify the accounts.



"Community kitchens in Sudan are a lifeline for people who are trapped in areas with ongoing conflict," said Eddie Rowe, the UN World Food Programme's country director in Sudan.



"By supporting them, WFP is able to get food into the hands of hundreds of thousands of people at risk of famine, even in the face of severe access constraints," he told Reuters, saying the safety of aid workers must be guaranteed.



The RSF and Sudanese Armed Forces did not respond to questions for this article. However, the RSF has previously denied targeting aid workers and said any rogue elements who did so would be brought to justice.



The military has also said it does not target aid workers, but anyone who collaborates with the "rebellious" RSF is subject to arrest.



Acute hunger

UN officials say more than half of Sudan's population – 25.6 million people – are experiencing acute hunger and need urgent assistance. In the worst-hit areas, residents displaced by fighting or under siege in their homes have resorted to eating dirt and leaves.

Local volunteers founded hundreds of kitchens early in the war that served hot meals - typically a meagre porridge of sorghum, lentils or beans - once or twice a day. But as food prices soared and private donations dwindled, some had to close or reduce services to as little as five times a month.

In North Darfur state, a group that runs kitchens in a camp housing half a million people displaced by ethnically driven violence has repeatedly had to stop serving meals due to insufficient funds, a volunteer there said. A global authority on hunger crises said in August that the conflict and restrictions on aid deliveries have caused famine in the Zamzam camp.

Many communal kitchens are operated by a loose network of community groups known as emergency response rooms, which have tried to sustain basic services, such as water and power, and distribute food and medical supplies.

Both the army and RSF distrust these groups, in part because they include people who were members of grassroots "resistance committees" that led pro-democracy protests during the uprising that toppled former autocrat Omar al-Bashir in 2019. The volunteers who spoke to Reuters said the objectives of the emergency response rooms are purely humanitarian.