People in a camp, fleeing violence and fighting between the government and the RSF.Image: keystone
The Sudan envoy for the UN children’s fund Unicef, Sheldon Yett, compares the situation in Sudan with the genocide in Rwanda in the 1990s.
November 12, 2025, 04:13November 12, 2025, 04:13
“Much of what is happening in parts of Sudan reminds me of that. The reports of the frenzy. The joy of killing,” he told “Spiegel”.
“There are targeted acts of violence against various ethnic groups.”
Sheldon Yett is UNICEF envoy for Sudan.Image: UNICEF/UNI622723/Ahmed Mohamdeen Elfati
Yett added: “The survivors’ accounts are harrowing: murders, blackmail, rapes. Some pay large sums of money to escape. There is a complete breakdown of all order,” said Yett, who said he witnessed the genocide in Rwanda in the 1990s.
“Sudan is a testing ground for modern warfare.”
War has been raging in Sudan between the military and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia for more than two years. According to estimates, 150,000 people died in the conflict. At the beginning of November, the violence escalated again when the RSF took over the large city of Al-Fashir in Darfur.
The situation in the East African country is currently the largest humanitarian crisis in the world. Both sides of the conflict are accused of war crimes and serious human rights violations, which the army and the RSF deny.
“They eat grass and animal feed”
Yett said that around 260,000 people were still trapped in Al-Fashir and could not escape. “They eat grass and animal feed. Many die of hunger or because there is a lack of medication.” Attempts to provide humanitarian aid in Al-Fashir regularly failed because drivers and trucks were shot at.
The war has left parts of Sudan cut off from the outside world. Unicef is one of the few organizations that still provides assistance on site. In Rwanda in 1994, Hutu militias murdered at least 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutus within just 100 days. (sda/dpa)