METCHE CAMP, Chad (AP) — The war in Sudan began a year ago. Here in a remote camp for tens of thousands of people who have fled into neighboring Chad, the anniversary is marked by near starvation.
Assadig Abubaker Salih is a 42-year old mother of six. The family survived the hot, dusty journey from their home to this sprawling camp of wind-whipped blue tents stretching in rows toward the horizon.
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METCHE CAMP, Chad (AP) — The war in Sudan began a year ago. Here in a remote camp for tens of thousands of people who have fled into neighboring Chad, the anniversary is marked by near starvation.
Sudanese Children suffering from malnutrition are treated at an MSF clinic in Metche Camp, Chad, near the Sudanese border, Sunday, April 7, 2024. Many people here fled the fighting in Sudan's vast western region of Darfur, where attacks by the Arab-dominated Rapid Support Forces on ethnic African civilians have revived memories of genocide. The United Nations says close to 9 million people have fled their homes. (AP Photo/Patricia Simon)
Sudanese Children suffering from malnutrition are treated at an MSF clinic in Metche Camp, Chad, near the Sudanese border, Friday, April 5, 2024. Many people here fled the fighting in Sudan's vast western region of Darfur, where attacks by the Arab-dominated Rapid Support Forces on ethnic African civilians have revived memories of genocide. The United Nations says close to 9 million people have fled their homes. (AP Photo/Patricia Simon)
Sudanese Children suffering from malnutrition are treated at an MSF clinic in Metche Camp, Chad, near the Sudanese border, Saturday, April 6, 2024. Many people here fled the fighting in Sudan's vast western region of Darfur, where attacks by the Arab-dominated Rapid Support Forces on ethnic African civilians have revived memories of genocide. The United Nations says close to 9 million people have fled their homes. (AP Photo/Patricia Simon)
Sudanese Children suffering from malnutrition are treated at an MSF clinic in Metche Camp, Chad, near the Sudanese border, Saturday, April 6, 2024. Many people here fled the fighting in Sudan's vast western region of Darfur, where attacks by the Arab-dominated Rapid Support Forces on ethnic African civilians have revived memories of genocide. The United Nations says close to 9 million people have fled their homes. (AP Photo/Patricia Simon)
“We are in a very bad situation. We have suffered since we left our country. My husband died," she said. “There is nothing here. We need the essentials. We don’t even have sugar.”
Back home, Sudan's military, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, is fighting the paramilitary group known as Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, for immensely greater resources — including power over the country's more than 45 million people.
Close to 9 million people have fled their homes, according to the United Nations, and more than 1 million have left the country. Thousands have been killed in a conflict overshadowed by the ones in Gaza and Ukraine. The U.N. says it has asked for $2.7 billion in funding to respond to humanitarian needs but has received $155 million — or 6%.
“It has been everyday Sudanese who have — often at great personal risk —stepped up to support each other,” Eatizaz Yousif, country director with the International Rescue Committee, said in a joint statement by aid groups urging the world to give more.
The U.N. has warned of an impending generational catastrophe. An estimated 3 million Sudanese children are malnourished. About 19 million children are out of school. A quarter of Sudan's hospitals are no longer functioning.
Aid organizations say women and children are bearing the worst of the conflict.
Even here, across the border, resources are stretched thin after more than 570,000 Sudanese arrived over the past year. Aid workers warn they are set to run out of some supplies within weeks. Shortages of water and ways to keep clean mean a growing risk of disease.
A growing number of children are arriving at the pediatric unit run by the Doctors Without Borders charity with pulmonary complications, a result of the harsh environment. The organization has also documented rising cases of hepatitis E, which can be deadly for pregnant women.
"Many, many of our babies are severely malnourished,” said Cordula Haffner, the Doctors Without Borders hospital coordinator at the camp. “The reason is hygiene, not enough food, not enough water. This is a crisis that will continue. We will see even more children like this.”
More than 16,000 children younger than 5 arriving in Chad from Sudan have had severe acute malnutrition, according to the U.N. — a stage where the effects of hunger are clearly visible.
Many people in this camp fled some of the conflict’s worst fighting in Sudan’s vast western region of Darfur. But the most desperate are trapped behind the front lines.
“We are seeing a catastrophe unfolding in North Darfur, where our teams have estimated that 13 children are dying each day of malnutrition and related health conditions at a camp for displaced people,” Avril Benoît, executive director of Doctors Without Borders in the U.S., said in a statement. She urged Sudanese authorities to stop blocking aid.
Some Sudanese manage to get help in time. One mother of six, Rachid Yaya Mohammed, said she came to the hospital at this camp in Chad because she is six months pregnant.
Two of her smallest children — twins — slept beside her.
Conditions are expected to worsen in the coming lean season between harvests, when food reserves are depleted and rains drive up rates of malaria.
Sudan plunged into chaos a year ago when clashes erupted in the capital, Khartoum, and spread.
In Darfur, brutal attacks by the Arab-dominated Rapid Support Forces on ethnic African civilians have revived memories of genocide.
Two decades ago, as many as 300,000 people were killed and 2.7 million were driven from their homes largely by government-backed Arab militias. The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces grew out of those militias known as the Janjaweed who were accused of widespread killings, rapes and other atrocities.
Now, prosecutors at the International Criminal Court say there are grounds to believe both sides in the current conflict are committing war crimes.
West Darfur, especially its capital city of Geneina, has witnessed some of the worst atrocities including mass killings and rampant sexual violence against the African Masalit tribe, according to U.N. experts. The AP has reported that militias launched waves of attacks on Geneina and other towns, taking men away and burning their homes.
Associated Press writers Jessica Donati in Dakar, Senegal, and Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report.
Find more of AP's Africa coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/africa
Sudanese Children suffering from malnutrition are treated at an MSF clinic in Metche Camp, Chad, near the Sudanese border, Sunday, April 7, 2024. Many people here fled the fighting in Sudan's vast western region of Darfur, where attacks by the Arab-dominated Rapid Support Forces on ethnic African civilians have revived memories of genocide. The United Nations says close to 9 million people have fled their homes. (AP Photo/Patricia Simon)
Sudanese Children suffering from malnutrition are treated at an MSF clinic in Metche Camp, Chad, near the Sudanese border, Sunday, April 7, 2024. Many people here fled the fighting in Sudan's vast western region of Darfur, where attacks by the Arab-dominated Rapid Support Forces on ethnic African civilians have revived memories of genocide. The United Nations says close to 9 million people have fled their homes. (AP Photo/Patricia Simon)
Sudanese Children suffering from malnutrition are treated at an MSF clinic in Metche Camp, Chad, near the Sudanese border, Friday, April 5, 2024. Many people here fled the fighting in Sudan's vast western region of Darfur, where attacks by the Arab-dominated Rapid Support Forces on ethnic African civilians have revived memories of genocide. The United Nations says close to 9 million people have fled their homes. (AP Photo/Patricia Simon)
Sudanese Children suffering from malnutrition are treated at an MSF clinic in Metche Camp, Chad, near the Sudanese border, Saturday, April 6, 2024. Many people here fled the fighting in Sudan's vast western region of Darfur, where attacks by the Arab-dominated Rapid Support Forces on ethnic African civilians have revived memories of genocide. The United Nations says close to 9 million people have fled their homes. (AP Photo/Patricia Simon)
Sudanese Children suffering from malnutrition are treated at an MSF clinic in Metche Camp, Chad, near the Sudanese border, Saturday, April 6, 2024. Many people here fled the fighting in Sudan's vast western region of Darfur, where attacks by the Arab-dominated Rapid Support Forces on ethnic African civilians have revived memories of genocide. The United Nations says close to 9 million people have fled their homes. (AP Photo/Patricia Simon)
NEW YORK (AP) — The pro-Palestinian demonstration that paralyzed Columbia University ended in dramatic fashion late Tuesday, with police carrying riot shields swarming the Ivy League campus, bursting into an administration building protesters took over the previous night and making dozens of arrests.
A statement released by a Columbia spokesperson said New York City officers entered the campus after the university requested help. A tent encampment on the school's grounds to protest the Israel-Hamas war was cleared, along with Hamilton Hall where a stream of officers used a ladder to climb through a second-floor window. Protesters seized the hall about 20 hours earlier.
“After the University learned overnight that Hamilton Hall had been occupied, vandalized, and blockaded, we were left with no choice,” the school said. “The decision to reach out to the NYPD was in response to the actions of the protesters, not the cause they are championing. We have made it clear that the life of campus cannot be endlessly interrupted by protesters who violate the rules and the law.”
NYPD spokesman Carlos Nieves said he had no immediate reports of any injuries. The arrests occurred after protesters had shrugged off an earlier ultimatum to abandon the encampment Monday or be suspended and unfolded as other universities stepped up efforts to end demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war that were inspired by Columbia.
Just blocks away at The City College of New York, demonstrators were in a standoff with police outside the public college’s main gate. Video posted on social media by news reporters on the scene late Tuesday showed officers putting some people to the ground and shoving others as they cleared people from the street and sidewalks. Many detained protesters were driven away on city buses.
An encampment at the college, part of the City University of New York system, has been up since Thursday. After police arrived on campus Tuesday, NYPD officers lowered a Palestinian flag atop the City College flagpole, balled it up and tossed it to the ground before raising an American flag.
Police have swept through other campuses across the U.S. over the last two weeks, leading to confrontations and more than 1,000 arrests. In rarer instances, university officials and protest leaders struck agreements to restrict the disruption to campus life and upcoming commencement ceremonies.
Brown University, another member of the Ivy League, reached an agreement Tuesday with protesters on its Rhode Island campus. Demonstrators said they would close their encampment in exchange for administrators taking a vote to consider divestment in October. The compromise appeared to mark the first time a U.S. college has agreed to vote on divestment in the wake of the protests.
Columbia's police action happened on the 56th anniversary of a similar move to quash an occupation of Hamilton Hall by students protesting racism and the Vietnam War.
The police department earlier Tuesday said officers wouldn't enter the grounds without the college administration’s request or an imminent emergency. Now, law enforcement will be there through May 17, the end of the university's commencement events.
Fabien Lugo, a first-year accounting student who said he was not involved in the protests, said he opposed the university’s decision to call in police.
“This is too intense,” he said. “It feels like more of an escalation than a de-escalation.”
In a letter to senior NYPD officials, Columbia President Minouche Shafik said the administration was making the request that police remove protesters from the occupied building and a nearby tent encampment “with the utmost regret.”
Shafik also leaned into the idea, first put forward by New York City Mayor Eric Adams earlier in the day, that the group that occupied Hamilton was “led by individuals who are not affiliated with the university.”
Neither provided specific evidence to back up that contention, which was disputed by protest organizers and participants.
NYPD officials made similar claims about “outside agitators” during the huge, grassroots demonstrations against racial injustice that erupted across the city after the death of George Floyd in 2020. In some instances, top police officials falsely labeled peaceful marches organized by well-known neighborhood activists as the work of violent extremists.
Before officers arrived at Columbia, the White House condemned the standoffs there and at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, where protesters had occupied two buildings for more than a week until officers with batons intervened early Tuesday and arrested 25 people.
President Joe Biden believes students occupying an academic building is “absolutely the wrong approach,” and “not an example of peaceful protest,” said National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby.
Later, former President Donald Trump called into Sean Hannity’s show on Fox News Channel to comment on Columbia’s turmoil as live footage of police clearing Hamilton Hall aired. Trump praised the officers.
“But it should never have gotten to this,” he told Hannity. “And they should have done it a lot sooner than before they took over the building because it would have been a lot easier if they were in tents rather than a building. And tremendous damage done, too.”
The nationwide campus protests began at Columbia in response to Israel’s offensive in Gaza after Hamas launched a deadly attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7. Militants killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took roughly 250 hostages. Vowing to stamp out Hamas, Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the local health ministry.
As cease-fire negotiations appeared to gain steam, it wasn’t clear whether those talks would inspire an easing of protests.
Israel and its supporters have branded the university protests as antisemitic, while Israel’s critics say it uses those allegations to silence opposition. Although some protesters have been caught on camera making antisemitic remarks or violent threats, organizers of the protests, some of whom are Jewish, say it is a peaceful movement aimed at defending Palestinian rights and protesting the war.
On Columbia’s campus, protesters first set up a tent encampment almost two weeks ago. The school sent in police to clear the tents the following day, arresting more than 100 people, only for the students to return – and inspire a wave of similar encampments at campuses across the country.
Negotiations between the protesters and the college came to a standstill in recent days, and the school set a deadline for the activists to abandon the tent encampment Monday afternoon or be suspended.
Instead, protesters defied the ultimatum and took over Hamilton Hall early Tuesday, carrying in furniture and metal barricades. The demonstrators dubbed the building Hind’s Hall, honoring a young girl who was killed in Gaza under Israeli fire, and issued demands for divestment, financial transparency and amnesty.
Columbia's chapter of the American Association of University Professors said faculty’s efforts to help defuse the situation have been repeatedly ignored by the university’s administration despite school statutes that require consultation.
Ilana Lewkovitch, a self-described “leftist Zionist” student at Columbia, said it’s been hard to concentrate on school for weeks. Her exams have been disrupted with chants of “say it loud, say it clear, we want Zionists out of here.”
Lewkovitch, who identifies as Jewish, said she wished the current pro-Palestinian protests were more open to people like her who criticize Israel’s war policies but believe there should be an Israeli state.
Dazio reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press journalists around the country contributed to this report, including Cedar Attanasio, Jonathan Mattise, Colleen Long, Karen Matthews, Jim Vertuno, Hannah Schoenbaum, Sarah Brumfield, Christopher Weber, Carolyn Thompson, Dave Collins, Makiya Seminera, Philip Marcelo and Corey Williams.
New York Police officers escort a protester outside the Columbia University campus, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julius Motal)
A person engages with a New York City police official as he, along with other officers, move to clear a main gate at Columbia University in New York on Tuesday, April 30, 2024, as authorities cleared parts of the campus of protesters after a building was taken over by activists earlier in the day. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
As light rain falls, New York City police officers take people into custody near the Columbia University campus in New York, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, after a building taken over by protesters earlier in the day was cleared, along with a tent encampment. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
New York City police officers take people into custody near the Columbia University campus in New York Tuesday, April 30, 2024, after a building taken over by protesters earlier in the day was cleared, along with a tent encampment. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
Using a tactical vehicle, New York City police enter an upper floor of Hamilton Hall on the Columbia University campus in New York Tuesday, April 30, 2024, after a building was taken over by protesters earlier Tuesday. Hundreds of police officers swept into Columbia University on Tuesday night to end a pro-Palestinian occupation of an administration building and sweep away a protest encampment, acting after the school’s president said there was no other way to ensure safety and restore order on campus.(AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
New York City police enter an upper floor of Hamilton Hall on the Columbia University campus using a tactical vehicle, in New York Tuesday, April 30, 2024, after a building was taken over by protesters earlier Tuesday. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
Using a tactical vehicle, New York City police enter an upper floor of Hamilton Hall on the Columbia University campus in New York Tuesday, April 30, 2024, after a building was taken over by protesters earlier Tuesday. Hundreds of police officers swept into Columbia University on Tuesday night to end a pro-Palestinian occupation of an administration building and sweep away a protest encampment, acting after the school’s president said there was no other way to ensure safety and restore order on campus. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
Pro-Palestinian protester Mercedes, a student at Southwestern University, raises a fist as she walks out of the Travis County Jail Tuesday April 30, 2024, a day after getting arrested at a protest at the University of Texas, in Austin, Texas. (Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via AP)
Students watch from their residence hall windows as members of the New York Police Department strategic response team move towards an entrance to Columbia University, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in New York. After entering the campus, a contingent of police officers approached Hamilton Hall, the administration building that student protesters began occupying in the morning. (AP Photo/Julius Motal)
Pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrate on the campus of DePaul University, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
Pro-Palestinian protesters settled into a portico of Millar Library on the Portland State University campus over the weekend, shown on Monday, April 29, 2024, in Portland, Ore. Permission was originally granted by President Ann Cudd, but the PSU president reversed course on Monday and saying it needs to come down because of health and safety hazards. (Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian via AP)
Pro-Palestinian protesters occupied Portland State University's library, advocating for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war, on Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in Portland, Ore. (Dave Killen/The Oregonian via AP)
A demonstrator pumps his fist as he hangs a sign from a window in Hamilton Hall inside the Columbia University campus, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
A group of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered at Portland State University in support of a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war, Monday, April 29, 2024, in Portland, Ore. (Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian via AP)
Student protesters camp near the entrance to Hamilton Hall on the campus of Columbia University, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in New York. Early Tuesday, dozens of protesters took over Hamilton Hall, locking arms and carrying furniture and metal barricades to the building. Columbia responded by restricting access to campus. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, Pool)
Members of the New York Police Department strategic response team escort protesters from Columbia University, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in New York. After entering the campus, a contingent of police officers approached Hamilton Hall, the administration building that student protesters began occupying in the morning. (AP Photo/Julius Motal)
Members of the New York Police Department strategic response team load arrested protesters from Columbia University onto a bus, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in New York. After entering the campus, a contingent of police officers approached Hamilton Hall, the administration building that student protesters began occupying in the morning. (AP Photo/Julius Motal)
Students with the Gaza solidarity encampment block the entrance of Hamilton Hall at Columbia University after taking over it on Tuesday, April 30, 2024 in New York. Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine called for mobilization close to midnight. (Marco Postigo Storel via AP)
Members of the New York Police Department strategic response team load arrested protesters from Columbia University onto a bus, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in New York. After entering the campus, a contingent of police officers approached Hamilton Hall, the administration building that student protesters began occupying in the morning. (AP Photo/Julius Motal)
Members of the New York Police Department strategic response team load arrested protesters from Columbia University onto a bus, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in New York. After entering the campus, a contingent of police officers approached Hamilton Hall, the administration building that student protesters began occupying in the morning. (AP Photo/Julius Motal)
A police bus loaded with protesters arrested at Columbia University departs an entrance to the campus on 114th Street, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in New York. After entering the campus, a contingent of police officers approached Hamilton Hall, the administration building that student protesters began occupying in the morning. (AP Photo/Julius Motal)
Police stand in front of a University of Utah sign as they move demonstrators who had gathered to show support for Palestinians off the property at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Monday, April 29, 2024. (Scott G Winterton/The Deseret News via AP)
A police bus loaded with protesters arrested at Columbia University departs an entrance to the campus on 114th Street, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in New York. After entering the campus, a contingent of police officers approached Hamilton Hall, the administration building that student protesters began occupying in the morning. (AP Photo/Julius Motal)
Members of the New York Police Department strategic response team move towards an entrance to Columbia University, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in New York. After entering the campus, a contingent of police officers approached Hamilton Hall, the administration building that student protesters began occupying in the morning. (AP Photo/Julius Motal)
Using a tactical vehicle, New York City police enter an upper floor of Hamilton Hall on the Columbia University campus in New York Tuesday, April 30, 2024, after a building was taken over by protesters earlier Tuesday. Hundreds of police officers swept into Columbia University on Tuesday night to end a pro-Palestinian occupation of an administration building and sweep away a protest encampment, acting after the school’s president said there was no other way to ensure safety and restore order on campus. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
Using a tactical vehicle, New York City police enter an upper floor of Hamilton Hall on the Columbia University campus in New York Tuesday, April 30, 2024, after a building was taken over by protesters earlier Tuesday. Hundreds of police officers swept into Columbia University on Tuesday night to end a pro-Palestinian occupation of an administration building and sweep away a protest encampment, acting after the school’s president said there was no other way to ensure safety and restore order on campus.(AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
