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The Pot Kenny Show. With a

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Viva Insurance on. News Talk. But

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Sudan erupted into conflict on April

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fifteenth last year of the Sudanese

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armies been fighting against the Rapid

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Support forces so cold. It's a

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paramilitary group led by man called

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Mohamad Hundred Diallo or he is

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known as Humidity. Both. Sides stand

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accused of war crimes by the other.

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There was no exact idea of the

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current death toll, but there certainly is

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an idea of the huge numbers of

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those displaced. At joining us to talk

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about this is Irish Times Correspondent and

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authors Sally Hayden Sally Good morning. I

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you thanks for having me. That sally, What

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is the reason for this war?

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What are the will add? The

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government and this paramilitary army fighting

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about. Yeah I mean

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the reason for the where is basically

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a power struggle and and I think

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it's really important. Sad to say you

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know I think people when they hear

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about this region they think that maybe

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it's always been troubled are things have

1:02

always been bad and and basically what

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happened was a my Albus share a

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longstanding dictator with i stood in Twenty

1:09

Twenty nineteen and there is axiom very

1:11

kind of positive hopeful period. After that

1:14

were and there were hopes that their

1:16

country could turn to civilian. Real. And

1:18

there's so many, you know, young pro

1:20

democracy activists who were really, really working

1:23

towards that. But instead, you've had this

1:25

power grab faced by these two men

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who kind of orchestrated a cool and

1:30

twenty twenty one and so were actually

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allies. I'm working with each other. It's

1:34

it to kind of stop their country

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from going to civilian real and now

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they've turned against each other at an

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i mean it. This is highly predictable,

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but it's also completely devastating because percent

1:46

a nice people. they were. You

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know they a with almost in their grass

1:50

that the country would become a democracy and

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and them that you know i a good

1:54

day so. Subtly, this is not about principle,

1:57

it is simply about power. yeah

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Yes, I mean, yes. Now,

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the two individuals, one heading

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the Sudanese army and the other the

2:06

paramilitary group, they clearly are

2:09

cut from the same cloth, both

2:12

armies being accused of

2:14

war crimes. Yes,

2:17

exactly. And also, I think it's worth

2:19

mentioning that, I mean, the Rapid Support

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Forces, they obviously were kind

2:23

of built out of the Janja weeds

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that are accused of genocide in Dac

2:27

4 in 2003, but they're

2:30

also said to have been emboldened

2:32

by EU anti-migration funding. So

2:34

partially why they became so powerful was

2:37

because they were charged with guarding the

2:39

border to try and stop people migrating

2:41

towards Europe. So, yes, it's

2:43

kind of a, it's just

2:45

devastating and everybody's suffering.

2:48

Like Sudanese civilians are obviously

2:50

just suffering to such

2:52

a huge extent, it's unimaginable. We

2:56

know that there could be the possibility of

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famine for many people. It's a country of

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45 million people, 9 million

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people displaced, many of them making their way

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across the border into South Sudan, which is

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the newest country in the world, they say,

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I think it dates from 2011, but

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itself a model of corruption.

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And I'm not sure if there are a

3:17

welcome on the map for the Sudanese when

3:19

they go into South Sudan. Yeah,

3:21

so I was actually on the Sudan,

3:23

South Sudan, border a few weeks ago

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and around at times

3:28

and sometimes many more people are

3:30

crossing every day and

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they don't need documents. They're being welcomed

3:35

effectively with open arms. A

3:37

minister there told me that they have

3:39

an open door policy that they understand

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that people fleeing war needs to be

3:44

protected, but there's very limited actual

3:46

resources and capacity for what they can

3:48

be given. A lot of

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the people returning are actually South

3:53

Sudanese citizens originally who fled

3:55

war inside Sudan, went to

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Sudan and now are coming.

4:00

back. But there are others, both

4:02

from Sudan and even from other

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countries who had fled Sudan, seeking

4:06

refuge and are now crossing the

4:08

border as well. And yeah, they're

4:10

conditioned inside Sudan. I mean, it's

4:12

really rough. You know, people are

4:14

arriving with basically nothing. They're receiving

4:16

some limited help when they cross.

4:19

But yeah, seeing that flow

4:21

of people, more than 630,000

4:24

people have now crossed into South Sudan alone.

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Now, it's the forgotten war, but you're

4:29

doing your best to keep it in the public

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mind. There was

4:33

a peace conference or some sort of a

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conference yesterday in Paris. What was

4:38

hoped would be achieved by that? Because every

4:40

day we read about Gaza, we read about

4:42

Ukraine, we don't read about Sudan. Yeah,

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I mean, I think that the hope

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was just to try and get more

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attention. There was both like a political

4:52

meeting and also a donor

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meeting. I think I read the

4:56

figures today, still only 6.2% of

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the humanitarian response plan, I think

5:02

for this year is funded. Ireland,

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as we're saying, has been a major

5:07

donor. And I think they're technically ranked

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as the seventh biggest donor after

5:12

the EU, which obviously we also contribute

5:15

to and after the Central Emergency

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Response Fund, which we also contribute

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to. Yeah, and yeah, the

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other thing I think we're saying is like,

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we have this characterization now of

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Sudan as a forgotten war, but

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like, it's obviously not forgotten for

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tens of millions of people who

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are affected by it, you know,

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and yeah, the Western media certainly

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needs to pay more attention because

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the hashtag keep

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eyes on Sudan. What is that about? And

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how should we use it? I

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think like right from the beginning, Sudanese people

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recognize that this war was not going to

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get the attention that it should. And they

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will say, you know, they think that that's

5:55

partially racism. It's the way that Africa is

5:57

covered. It's also this feeling that maybe it

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was in a inevitable and they'll say

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definitely it wasn't and that they needed

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more support all along and this hashtag

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keep eyes on Sudan has been what

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people use to share information about the

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Sudanese war and just try and appeal

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for everybody to pay more

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attention. Is there any external

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forces outside Sudan within

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Africa who take an interest

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in this and could broker some sort of

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a settlement because these two

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warring factions given they wear a pals and are

6:30

cut from the same cloth could keep at

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it? Yeah,

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I'm not really sure. I'm

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not really sure at this moment it doesn't seem

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like there's any kind of

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movement towards any sort of settlement and

6:42

I know that but the warring parties

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they weren't even involved in the conference

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and yesterday both of them have been kind of

6:50

doing you know pure campaigns effectively trying

6:52

to say that they'd be the best

6:54

people to to run

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Sudan and but yeah, I don't

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I can't I don't see that coming

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anytime soon anyway. Sally

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thank you very much for joining us Sally

7:06

Hayden Irish Times journalist and author. News

7:10

Talk Breakfast with Kira Kelly

7:12

and Shane Coleman in association

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with air on News Talk.