Transcript
Matt Meyer:
You're listening to RadioEd...
Emma Atkinson:
The University of Denver podcast...
Matt Meyer:
We're your hosts, Matt Meyer...
Emma Atkinson:
and Emma Atkinson...
Emma Atkinson (VO):
In the last month, the eyes of the international community have largely turned to Sudan, a North African country where political tensions have escalated into full-blown violence.
The conflict is swiftly resulting in a large-scale refugee emergency as tens of thousands of Sudanese flee the country amid what looks to be a burgeoning civil war. Experts are calling it a rapidly developing humanitarian crisis.
General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan leads the country’s armed forces, while his former deputy, Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, heads up the rival paramilitary group, known as the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF. Dagalo is also known as Hemedti. This week, they’re meeting for peace talks for the first time since the conflict began.
RSF was founded by former dictator Omar al-Bashir more than two decades ago to crush a rebellion in the country’s Darfur region. The U.S. had collaborated with Sudan to force al-Bashir out of power in the hopes of establishing a democratic government, but al-Burhan and Hemedti collaborated in 2021 to stage a coup, ousting the civilian prime minister and taking over the country.
The two generals have been in control of the country since January 2022. And now, political tensions between their two forces have exploded into warfare.
In response to the clash between Sudanese armed forces and a strengthened rival militia group, the United States quickly evacuated all foreign service officers from the country and closed the U.S. Embassy in the capital city, Khartoum, where much of the fighting is based.
Gary Grappo, a distinguished fellow at the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies, says evacuating American foreign service officers, like ambassadors and consular agents, from global locations of turmoil isn’t unusual, but the U.S. did face significant obstacles in extracting its personnel from Khartoum.
Gary Grappo:
“It was a challenge because all the violence, as they said, is concentrated in Khartoum, the capital, so it required that the U.S. military, which carried out the evacuation, had to enter what was effectively—and remains—a combat zone.”
Emma Atkinson (VO):
NPR reported that the U.S. military airlifted just under a hundred people, government staff and their families, out of Khartoum overnight. Reporter Emmanuel Akinwotu called it a precarious operation—especially because Sudan’s airspace is effectively closed.
Grappo, a career diplomat and former ambassador to Oman, says during developing conflicts, procedure usually dictates that families are evacuated first, with essential personnel remaining in the country.
Gary Grappo:
This conflict erupted pretty quickly. So there wasn't any run up. Where for example, it might have been possible to evacuate families. I served in at a post where we had to evacuate and they we started with dependents, families, and got them out as quickly as possible, before the danger really reached in acute state. But in this circumstance, that was not possible. So they had to organize an evacuation for dependents as well as actual staff. And that does complicate things, we're talking about children who don't always understand how this supposed to go, there's certainly a level of fear.
Emma Atkinson (VO):
Grappo served as chargé d'affaires to Saudi Arabia in 2003.
Gary Grappo:
at that time, Saudi Arabia was facing an acute terrorist threat from al Qaeda. Al Qaeda had attacked in May of that year, several civilian Western civilian compounds. I can't recall the death toll from those attacks, but it was quite high. It was effectively their equivalent to our 911. Because up to that time, the Saudis were hesitant to believe that this could happen in the kingdom, this would happen elsewhere, but not there. And it did, and it was a real wake up call. And then the, the danger or the threat level, began to increase very, very rapidly, it became apparent that there was a sizable outside element within Saudi Arabia itself. And one of the principal targets was the US Embassy, as well as our two consulate. So we were doing, we're taking all kinds of measures to protect the embassy and the two consulates, of course, including sharing information with everyone.
Gary Grappo:
Shortly after I arrived, there was another attack on a compound, another residential compound shortly a short ways outside the embassy. I just got into bed, and the blast was so strong, it knocked me out of bed. Thankfully, it was not the embassy that was targeted. I suspected terrorists may have thought that Americans lived in this compound because of its proximity to the embassy. My recollection, I don't think there were any there. But it was very close. And so and then we had a series of attack that just continued after that.
Emma Atkinson (VO):
Grappo recalls the difficult decision to evacuate the American families of government workers and non-essential government employees in 2004. And it was the right call—shortly after the evacuation, Al-Qaeda attacked one of the U.S. consulates. The attack claimed the lives of four security guards and five staff, though no Americans lost their lives that day.
Gary Grappo:
we later learned that the attackers who were connected to al Qaeda had intended to go after the they had a combined kind of small restaurant like a snack bar and a swimming pool, where families kind of got together during the lunch break. employees could get with their families and their kids and the kids would swim, and so on and so forth. They were targeting that particular facility. None of us wanted to imagine what could have ensued, had we not evacuated.
Emma Atkinson (VO):
Grappo says that U.S. government employees serving abroad prepare for these very situations.
Gary Grappo:
There are plans in place, and we have trip wires, as we refer to them and decision points and so forth. But we try to be as predictive as we can. But in situations like this, you're never going to get it 100%. Right. Actually, if you're batting 500, you're doing extremely well. Especially after, as in this case, the conflict had already started. Have we had some kind of advanced warning, we could have done a lot of this before the conflict actually erupted.
Emma Atkinson (VO):
Evacuating American civilians, however, is a very different beast.
Gary Grappo:
First of all, it's an immense logistical operation. We know exactly how many official Americans we have in a country, and therefore what it would take to remove them. We know where they are, where they live, their work location, there's direct communication, minute by minute with that. So the coordinating process and the logistics is greatly simplified as opposed to civilians that are scattered throughout the city of Khartoum and throughout the nation of Sudan, which is a big country. It's almost as big as the eastern half of the United States. So this is not an easy task to undertake. It took a while to put the first rescue mission together. And I understand they have been able to extract about 1000 of these Americans, the rest are either inaccessible, unreachable, or simply cannot move because of the threat danger. And so I don't know how far our government is going to be able to go to affect their evacuation. I know we've given instructions for them on where they can go to be evacuated. But obviously, travel now is very dangerous in that country, particularly in and around the area of Khartoum. So it's probably going to be very, very difficult for them.
Emma Atkinson (VO):
Not to mention that because the airspace is closed, anyone trying to leave the country must travel by land—over some unforgiving terrain—to reach Port Sudan or the border.
Americans aren’t the only ones fleeing Sudan. So far, according to the United Nations, the conflict has displaced nearly one million people, including Sudanese, refugees of other nationalities and refugees’ returnees who are leaving the country.
And leaving the country without access to air travel isn’t the only issue facing those who are trying to leave Sudan.
Chen Reis is a Korbel School professor and director of the school’s humanitarian assistance certificate program. Her research and practical work focuses on responses to humanitarian crises.
She says there are a few major hurdles for people looking to flee Sudan.
Chen Reis:
One is the security situation, it's just extremely dangerous. Throughout the country, there are clashes. People are getting caught up in in in the fighting. And it's not so simple to be able to just leave the promise ceasefires haven't really materialized in in a real way. And so, those looking to leave face a situation where they might encounter violence on the way so so that is one big barrier, or challenge for those seeking to leave.
Another one has to do with the increased cost of everything. Which combined with of increasing shortages in basic things like fuel, food, water really affects people's ability to get out. Critical goods aren't affordable. There are a lot of shortages of essential goods, including in the Capitol. And so the cost of things like tickets to get out or to get to the border, by bus or other means are just skyrocketed beyond the means of most people.
Emma Atkinson (interview audio):
we've talked about refugees, people who are seeking to leave Sudan, there's also this whole population of people who can't or won't leave, right, and what challenges does that pose in terms of humanitarian aid?
Chen Reis:
Right, so there are 1000s of people who have been displaced internally, meaning that they've had to leave their homes but have not crossed the border of Sudan. And there are those who are not in a position to leave their homes. And are, you know, staying put for now, because the security situation is such that they're unable to get out safely. And so that they're facing disruption to electricity, and internet, they're facing a lack of supplies, including medications that they need for survival. Food, drinkable water, fuel. So yeah, those that are those that are staying are facing a real challenge in terms of access to goods, health facilities are shut down. Many of them most of them, if a person is living with a chronic disease, for example, like diabetes, or cancer that requires ongoing treatment, they're likely unable to access the facilities or medications that they need. And as systems like water systems, electrical systems are disrupted, there's additional risks associated with the spread of disease, and with the inability to take care of those that are sick or injured.
Emma Atkinson (interview audio):
So in terms of humanitarian aid response, right, we're going to have agencies, NGOs, that are going to be looking at how to help both refugees and people who remain in the country, right? What does the beginning of that process look like?
Chen Reis:
So that process essentially has already begun. The process of taking care of those that have crossed the border is ongoing. The appeal that was recently launched is part of that process, trying to get more resources, resources have already been allocated from existing funding to support that response. And in many ways, that's the I wouldn't say easy because none of this is easy, but that is the more a little bit more straightforward in the sense that those populations are accessible, accessible in a safe way because they've already crossed and and the challenge with them is being able to provide them with what they need, given the sudden increase in the population of those who are in need and the lack of resources to support them.
Emma Atkinson (VO):
One major challenge, Reis says, is that many of the people who remain in Sudan are not accessible for humanitarian aid organizations.
Chen Reis:
It's important to note that even before the violence started in mid April, this, this kind of escalation and violence, about a third of the 45 million population of Sudan already relied on humanitarian assistance. And that's because of natural disasters associated with climate change, because of ongoing conflict impacts. And because of economic challenges, and a host of other reasons. And so you already had a population a pretty significant population in Sudan for lying and international humanitarian aid for basic survival. And those programs have had to be suspended because of the situation. There are reports of warehouses, with food and other things being looted. And so it's not a safe environment for international humanitarian agencies to operate and right now, and the work now is to try to get guarantees, to enable those aid organizations to be able to access those populations safely without being targeted by the parties to the conflict. And that is really difficult and challenging kind of political negotiation that may or may not yield results.
Emma Atkinson (VO):
The UN Refugee Agency, known as UNHCR, announced last week that it would need $445 million to begin supporting the initial outflow of refugees.
That money will go toward several different places, Reis says.
Chen Reis:
it's seen as a sort of a preliminary response. And the each of the refugee hosting countries will need different things. But overall, they will need shelter supplies, to temporarily house those refugees, they will need food to feed those refugees, they will need fuel for things like cooking and heating. And they will need assistance, they will need financial assistance to be able to relocate the refugees away from the border, which won't be safe and into areas where they can be safer. The other thing to consider is that many of these countries, as I said before, have are already hosting a significant number of refugees, even before this new influx of people. And so there may be a need to upgrade existing refugee camps if they're already at capacity, which many are in order to safely house and host new arrivals. And that includes building up the infrastructure of the camp to make sure that those people can access toileting facilities, water, shelter, food, health support health services. And so it's quite a complex undertaking and an expensive one.
Chen Reis:
there are two issues here. One is the need to address the needs of the folks that have crossed over and are crossing over every day. And those are immediate needs that they need to support. And they include not only the things that I mentioned earlier around food and shelter, and health care, but they also include psychosocial support for those that have experienced violence or witnessed it. And so that's one kind of critical, immediate need that needs to be addressed. They also need to plan ahead, right, there is no end in sight to this fighting. I've seen some projections that say, you know, over 800,000 people, plus could end up having to leave Sudan. And so they also need to plan ahead. And they need to think through how do we address even larger influxes of refugees into these surrounding countries. And so while they're addressing the current needs with this immediate first ask, it's also clear and donors know this, that there will likely be a broader appeal made once there's more of a handle on the immediate situation and more information about what needs might be in the future. This is quite common in acute emerging crises, that there's a preliminary plan just to get started, address the needs, and then as more data are collected, and as more information is available, then you plan for the slightly longer term.
Emma Atkinson (Interview audio):
as you said, we're at the beginning of what looks like it could be a really long conflict, like there's no end in sight. What might a long term humanitarian aid strategy look like?
Chen Reis:
Yeah, so I mean, I think that one thing that's important to note is that humanitarian aid can only really address the needs of populations affected by crises, they can't end the crises. That's, that's, you know, in this case, in particular, a political matter and requires a political solution. Humanitarian Aid responses for what's called protracted crises, or longer term crises, will look different depending on the nature of the crisis and the nature of the impacts on the population, but will often result in long term, refugee populations, right, people who are unable to go home, because of the security situation or their own, you know, fear for their own safety. And who are stuck in this space where they are having to make a decision about whether or not they stay in the refugee camps are trying to get resettled elsewhere, which is also not a simple process, and one that takes years and years. We have refugee camps in around the world where people have lived their entire lives in refugee camps, right? You have young people in their 20s, who've never known anything else. Because they were born in a refugee camp, they've lived in a refugee camp their whole lives. We now have the largest number of refugees in the world that we've ever had. And it's it's a function of crises lasting longer, being less amenable to political solutions. And also a an increased political, like politicization. I can't say that word, an increased reluctance by wealthier countries to accept refugees. It's become a very kind of political topic. In the US, for example, it used to be, you know, bipartisan agreement that accepting refugees was the right thing for us to do. And now it's become, you know, something that's a debate between the parties about whether it's, it's So, who we are as America to accept refugees, or whether it's destructive to who we are at our core to accept them? And, you know, that's not unique to the US. And so I think it's really important to, to recognize that part of the equation is, are we willing to accept the refugees as wealthier countries? Who are more peaceful? And unfortunately, increasingly, that's more and more? No, we're not willing to accept as many as many folks.
Chen Reis:
And, you know, there is, unfortunately, also a discriminatory component to that, as you saw the world and countries in Europe, open their arms to Ukrainian refugees. And, you know, it was it was actually quite lovely to see how willing people were to kind of open up their own homes, to welcome in those that were fleeing the crisis in Ukraine. But we don't see that same outpouring of welcome, either at a governmental or at a personal level, for people who are coming from places that are seen as different, right. And there's a racial component, there's religious discrimination component to it, right. So, for Sudanese, it's quite likely that we're not going to see the same level of welcome for them, as we saw for Ukrainian refugees in Europe or in the US.
Emma Atkinson (VO):
Many times during these sorts of crises, we sit at home and wonder: What can I do? How can I support the people of Sudan—or contribute to the organizations that are attempting to provide aid to the area?
Chen Reis:
you're going to see a lot of appeals from a lot of different organizations for the work that they're doing. I think it's really important to do your homework before giving money and to really understand who you're giving money to and what work they're planning to do and who they're planning to serve. And so, yes, money giving money, if you have it is really important and and helps to support operations, especially when there are so many need. Being informed and aware of what the US government is and is not doing in this situation is also very important. Using your voice using your physician as somebody who has access to policymakers and legislators really pressing for action. If you wait you see is not what you think should be happening. I also want to highlight that right now because people aren't able To get access into many parts of Sudan to provide the aid. That doesn't mean that there aren't efforts to help people who are in Sudan. And a lot of that is happening through movements and networks within the country, women's movements, youth movements, people kind of organizing mutual aid or trying to help each other. I've seen reports of youth organizations creating an app and a web portal where people can kind of reach out and say, This is what I need. Does anyone have this medication? I'm here for my uncle? Or, you know, I'm leaving in a car. Does anyone want to join me? Right? Does anyone need a seat in the car, going to port Sudan from such and such a place? And so it's, it's really important to highlight and be aware of the fact that Sudanese people are not helpless. They need to be supported to be able to do what they're already doing. And that there's a lot of knowledge that resides in Sudan of what can and needs to be done. And when international organizations are able to get access, I hope that they listen to and support the work that's already being done.
Emma Atkinson (VO):
Thanks again to our guests, University of Denver professors Gary Grappo and Chen Reis. For more information on their work and the sources used in this episode, check out our show notes at du.edu/radioed. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing, liking and reviewing the podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Tamara Chapman is our managing editor. Debora Rocha is our production assistant. James Swearingen arranged our theme. I’m Emma Atkinson, and this is RadioEd.
