Hamid Khalafallah is a development practitioner, researcher and policy analyst. He is currently a PhD student researching political transitions and grassroots movements in Africa, at the Global Development Institute of the University of Manchester. He has worked for various international organizations on governance and development issues in Sudan.
One year ago, when I was still in Khartoum, no one could have told me that the war in Sudan would continue this long and grow at this scale. I would not have believed that the fighting between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces would quickly turn my country into one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent history. What started as a power struggle between two rival generals has destroyed Sudan, dividing society along ethnic lines and triggering a new exodus of refugees, with more than 10 million people having fled their homes, displaced either inside or outside Sudan.
The war has also exacerbated many of Sudan's preexisting problems: a collapsing health-care system, widespread poverty and now famine-like conditions that will soon be the world's largest food crisis. A staggering 18 million people—that's more than a third of the country's population—are facing acute hunger, with almost 5 million of them on the brink of famine. By all measures, Sudan is experiencing a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions, with devastating impacts on the Sudanese people that will ripple across the Sahel and the Horn of Africa. But the world is looking away.
The international humanitarian response is "gravely inadequate," as Doctors Without Borders has warned. Despite a recent pledging conference in Paris that raised more than $2 billion for humanitarian assistance, that amount is still nowhere near what Sudan needs. This gap in funding is not the only shortcoming, either. Humanitarian access remains a crucial challenge, as both warring factions are obstructing the delivery of humanitarian aid across Sudan. There is also a limited presence of international aid groups on the ground due to these issues of access, from bureaucratic and administrative impediments and visa difficulties to the dangerous operating environment of a warzone.
Sudanese civilians have been left to fend for themselves. Like the local "resistance committees" that led the protests against Omar al-Bashir's regime in 2019 and continued to organize against military rule before the war erupted, grassroots mutual aid groups have helped their communities get the assistance desperately needed. The main initiative on the ground is the "emergency response rooms," or ERRs, often youth-led groups that emerged out of the resistance committees. They are informal networks of local actors working to help their communities survive, building on a long tradition of mutual aid in Sudan. Spread across the country, the ERRs are providing lifesaving support in areas that are difficult for international aid agencies to reach. They have developed adaptive approaches to overcome hurdles in the most heroic ways, delivering food and water, keeping hospitals running and sheltering displaced people. They have also started organizing activities beyond the most urgent humanitarian needs, including educational activities for children.
Mutual aid is an act of political participation. It contributes to building bottom-up institutions that are representative and responsive to the needs of its citizens.
- Hamid Khalafallah
The ERRs and other local aid initiatives face serious risks from their work, including threats from the warring parties, which have targeted volunteers, accusing them of supporting their rivals. Yet their biggest challenge is a lack of funds and resources. Although some international NGOs are supporting Sudan's ERRs, progress has been slow, especially since the vast majority of donor funds are controlled by United Nations agencies that are less flexible in their funding. Even when supported by international aid organizations, the ERRs are often burdened with onerous and bureaucratic funding mechanisms, particularly in terms of monitoring and accountability. For now, most of the work of ERRs is being supported by the Sudanese diaspora and local crowdfunding campaigns.
If the international community is serious about ramping up its response to the humanitarian crisis in Sudan, it must provide adequate and flexible funding and resources to ERRs, with trust in the local accountability mechanisms of these grassroots Sudanese initiatives. Embedded in their respective communities, these groups have demonstrated impressive levels of transparency and downward accountability, along with horizontal governance and democratic decision-making. Major international donors and outside powers should also hold Sudan's warring factions accountable for protecting ERRs and ensuring their safety on the ground, the same way they would do with international humanitarian workers.
Sudan is a warning sign to the world about the need to rethink humanitarian assistance.
- Hamid Khalafallah
Bolstering the work of ERRs and other local aid initiatives is not only crucial for delivering humanitarian assistance but also saving Sudan from the abyss. These community-driven mutual aid initiatives are building trust and seeking to prevent further damage to Sudan's social fabric, as the war tears communities apart. Mutual aid is an act of political participation. It contributes to building bottom-up institutions that are representative and responsive to the needs of its citizens. Mutual aid is also an act of resistance. It helps communities take matters in their own hands—to not be solely dependent on international donors, or subject to the terms and whims of Sudan's warring factions. The volunteers running the ERRs are the same brave Sudanese actors who have driven the country's pro-democracy movement and tirelessly worked toward a peaceful and equitable Sudan. Their work is vital for the present and the future of Sudan.
But supporting these local initiatives does not mean simply funding them while leaving them to shoulder Sudan's humanitarian crisis on their own. The international community should continue to find ways to increase the presence of international humanitarian workers on the ground, given the scale of the suffering in Sudan. ERRs and other local responders should steer the humanitarian response and guide international aid agencies on needs and priorities, but they must not continue to be overstretched. These (mostly young) volunteers, who courageously put their own lives at risk to help others, are Sudanese civilians themselves who are also severely impacted by the war. What is happening in Sudan is happening to them, too.
Sudan is a warning sign to the world about the need to rethink humanitarian assistance. When major international aid agencies largely can't access a country in need, what then? With their remarkable resilience in the face of war, the Sudanese people have provided an answer by organizing aid themselves. But these community-based mutual aid groups are in desperate need of more international support. This support should come in the form of true solidarity. It should respect their agency to resist and organize, and should not co-opt them into an overly bureaucratic and often inefficient system of international humanitarian aid.
The catastrophe in Sudan begs for thinking differently and radically about how humanitarian assistance operates in the country. If it is a question of strictly adhering to the regulations of international aid provision or saving Sudanese lives, the choice should be obvious.
