Sudanese network of volunteer aid groups wins Norwegian human rights award

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OSLO (Reuters) – A Norwegian human rights foundation gave its annual prize on Wednesday to the Emergency Response Rooms, a Sudanese network of community groups providing aid, for “their courageous work to preserve the most fundamental human right – the right to life”.

Four past laureates of the Rafto prize – Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi, East Timor’s Jose Ramos-Horta, South Korea’s Kim Dae-jung and Iran’s Shirin Ebadi – went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

This year’s Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on October 10 in Oslo. The Peace Research Institute Oslo, a research institution, named the Emergency Response Rooms as a possible winner.

The Emergency Response Rooms are a loose network that emerged during the civil war that broke out in Sudan in 2023. They have tried to sustain basic services, such as water and power, and distribute food and medical supplies.

“They consist of thousands of volunteers who engage in collaborative, community driven efforts to meet urgent humanitarian needs of others, at great personal risk,” the Rafto Foundation said in a statement.

“(They) save lives and maintain human dignity in a place of misery and despair. Their innovative mutual aid efforts through citizen participation contribute to developing a civil society and is essential to building a better future for Sudan.”

The conflict between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has created what the United Nations calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with widening pockets of famine across the country.

More than 12 million people had been forced to flee their homes in search of safety, according to U.N. estimates, though some have started to return.

The laureate of the Rafto Prize is awarded a diploma and prize money of $20,000.

(Reporting by Gwladys Fouche in Oslo; Editing by Aidan Lewis)