David Lammy ‘horrified’ after meeting face-to-face with war victims

Every day, families flock across the dry and dusty road to Chad, fleeing war and famine in Sudan – scenes that have clearly shaken the British Foreign Secretary.

Under the sweltering sun, David Lammy visited the Adré border post on Friday to see first-hand the impact of Sudan’s civil war raging as the army and its former ally, the Rapid Support Force paramilitary (RSF), discord.

Border crossers are often separated from their families in the chaos to escape and are desperate to see if their loved ones will make it across safely.

“It was one of the most horrible things I have ever heard and seen in my life,” Lammy said.

“It’s overwhelming, what I saw in Chad, on the border with Sudan, were women and children running for their lives – telling stories of massacre, mutilation, burning, violence.” widespread sexual violence against them and their children, and among them, starvation – such unbelievable circumstances.”

The foreign minister saw dozens of women wearing light, colorful scarves and carrying children of different ages cross in carriages.

They looked tired as they sat on bags containing the few belongings they could carry on the long journey to safety.

“Alhamdulillah” means “praise God,” Halima Abdalla commented when I asked her how she felt about crossing the border.

The 28-year-old woman feels relieved despite the tragedy she endured when she lost one of her children while fleeing Darfur, the western region of Sudan that has suffered some brutal violence most in the past 21 months – most are believed to have occurred. was made by RSF.

“I went to el-Geneina for the first time, but I had to run back when fighting broke out there,” she said, explaining how she was later separated from her husband and two other children.

Aid workers in Adré said they were trying to reunite families as they crossed the border.

One aid worker told the BBC: “Some mothers told us they had to choose which children to run with because they couldn’t carry them all at once.”

Some abandoned children were taken across the border by humanitarian workers and placed in foster care while efforts were made to find their families.

Standing on the Chadian side of the border, Lammy spoke to fleeing families and the aid workers taking them in.

After meeting some of the refugees, he told the BBC: “All these people have stories – very, very desperate stories of fleeing violence, murder of people in their families, rape , torture, mutilation.”

“I was just sitting with a woman who showed me her burns. She had been burned up and down her arms by soldiers, beaten and raped. This is desperate and we have to get everyone The world took notice and brought the suffering to an end.”

However, he criticized what he described as a “hierarchy of conflict” that appeared to have placed Sudan at the bottom, despite it currently being the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis.

In November last year, the British Foreign Secretary led a resolution calling for a ceasefire at the United Nations Security Council, which Russia vetoed.

“How can you veto the situation going on here?” He asked, sounding exasperated.

He told the BBC that he now intended to convene, in London, a meeting of Sudan’s neighbors Chad and Egypt as well as “other international partners to broker peace”.

Several peace negotiation efforts led by the US and Saudi Arabia have failed to yield a solution to the conflict.

Since the mediation stalled, the US subsequently punished the generals who commanded both sides in the war. It also determined that the RSF and its allies had committed genocide.

More than 12 million people have been forced to flee their homes since fighting broke out in April 2023.

Caught in the midst of the fierce fighting are more than 50 million civilians, nearly half of whom are in dire need of humanitarian aid, according to United Nations agencies.

Malnutrition rates here are among the highest in the world. At a tent clinic in Adré, medical staff measured the circumference of 6-month-old Rasma Ibrahim’s upper arm.

The color-coded ribbon will extend to the red end. The effects of her health condition may last her entire life. One in seven children in Adré is malnourished.

Lammy said the UK would continue to push for a ceasefire.

The country has doubled its aid to 200 million pounds ($250 million) and is calling on other donor countries to increase support.

However, aid agencies are concerned by newly inaugurated US President Donald Trump’s announcement to suspend foreign aid for 90 days.

A disruption in support from one of the world’s largest donors would certainly have devastating consequences for crises like Sudan. The United Nations is struggling to meet its much-needed aid target.

In 2024, a call for $2.7 billion to support Sudan was launched but only 57% of this amount was provided.

At the food distribution center in Adré, bags of split yellow peas, millet, sorghum, cans of cooking oil and other items were neatly arranged on tarpaulins while families from Nearby refugee camps lined up to receive quotas.

The cries of newborn babies tied with scarves to the backs of mothers waiting in line filled the air. Each family was called to come receive their rations.

One man helped lift a bag of dry food onto the shoulders of another, who then hummed as he walked back to his makeshift home.

According to local volunteers, Adré’s population was around 40,000 people before the Sudanese civil war began and now this number has increased more than fivefold.

The refugees here are among the lucky few. Just across the border, in Darfur, famine was declared in August at the Zamzam camp, near the city of el-Fasher, which the RSF had besieged for more than a year.

On Friday, terrible news broke that one of el-Fasher’s last functioning hospitals was attacked by a drone, killing at least 30 people. Regional authorities said the RSF paramilitary force was the culprit but they have not responded to the allegation.

Back in December, the UN-backed Famine Assessment Commission said the famine had spread to more areas – from Darfur to the Abu Shouk and al-Salam camps as well as parts of South Kordofan state.

Famine spread despite the reopening of the Adré border, which had been closed by the military on suspicion it was being used to transport weapons to its opponents.

As we left the border, three or four trucks flying the United Nations World Food Program banner slowly rumbled down the dusty road across Sudan.

They will provide much-needed aid to villages, towns and displacement camps beyond the borders. But it’s still far from enough.

“We have to stand up and wake up now to this huge crisis,” Lammy said.