Editorial: On Eve of Human Rights Day .. Rapid Response Required

Statistics indicate that there are more than 16 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), most of whom are fleeing the war, while others are seeking better services after losing them in their original homes. These numbers have increased due to the rebellion’s occupation of the entire Darfur region

Recently, the residents of Babanusa were displaced, and many remain missing. Even many residents of Khartoum are still living outside the city, residing in Omdurman or other Sudanese states, due to the lack of services, security threats, or because their homes are currently uninhabitable.

As for the refugees in several countries that have received them, most notably the sisterly Arab Republic of Egypt, their number has reached 5 million. The remaining 23 million Sudanese citizens now live below the poverty line.

This accurate assessment confirms that what is happening to the Sudanese people now constitutes a full-fledged humanitarian crime, occurring in full view of the international community, which offers little more than timid statements and condemnations without any tangible action. The European Union statement, which identifies the problem and acknowledges it as a humanitarian crisis, has not dared to activate its mechanisms and tools concerned with humanitarian affairs—or at least that is how it should be. These are other stories that warrant further examination. Even the Human Rights Council, which is quick to form international commissions of inquiry and send envoys, is not providing emergency services to sustain the displaced before the investigation results are released. These results do not require much effort, as they are documented by the perpetrators themselves, with images and audio recordings.

As legal experts say, a confession is the strongest evidence, but this is the double standard practiced by the international community with all its so-called judicial and humanitarian institutions.

The situation of the Sudanese citizen requires parallel action on the domestic level from the government, and businessmen. It also requires external action, whether from humanitarian organizations or from friendly and brotherly countries, to provide urgent aid.

Significant internal efforts are currently being made by the government, along with numerous initiatives from institutions and organizations to organize convoys and assist the displaced within Sudan. However, support is also needed from the government for citizens whose homes have been destroyed and looted. Its contents include providing assistance in the form of customs exemptions for essential needs they lost, such as furniture, cars, solar energy equipment, or even electrical wiring and meters that were looted along with household furnishings, so that those homes can be made at least partially habitable again.

The issue also demands consideration of the circumstances and salaries of state employees, especially in the public sector, whose salaries do not even cover a week’s living expenses, let alone education and healthcare in these exceptional circumstances.

The citizen is the fundamental element in development, progress, and reconstruction.

In short, rapid response from all concerned parties being international, regional or local insistitutions to overcome this humanitarian crisis