Sudanese Grassroots Network awarded 2025 Rafto Prize for Humanitarian Work in War-Torn Nation
Bergen, Norway – The Rafto Foundation for Human Rights today announced that Emergency Response Rooms (ERR), a grassroots network operating in Sudan, will receive the 2025 Rafto Prize.The award recognizes ERR’s vital work providing healthcare, food, water, and essential services to civilians amidst the ongoing civil war and escalating humanitarian crisis. The award ceremony took place in Media City bergen, with Ingrid Hoem sjursen chairing the prize committee.
ERR emerged in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, following the outbreak of civil war in 2023, building upon the foundations of resistance committees active in the 2019 revolution that ousted long-time dictator Omar Al-Bashir. With thousands of members currently active in 13 of Sudan’s 18 states, the network is a critical lifeline for a population facing widespread suffering. last year’s Rafto Prize was awarded to Cuban artist and human rights activist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara.
The United Nations has described Sudan as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with 30 million people – over half the country’s population – in need of humanitarian aid. Nearly 25 million are experiencing acute food insecurity, according to the World Food Program (WFP). Both warring parties are accused of using food as a weapon, alongside extensive war crimes and ethnic cleansing.
“It is important to shed light on what is happening in Sudan, as this is not as much discussed in the media,” said jostein Hole Kobbeltvedt of the Rafto Foundation to Bergens Avisen (BA).
ERR’s work extends beyond basic aid delivery to include monitoring, documenting, and following up on cases of sexual and gender-based violence, which are disproportionately affecting women and children.
The Rafto Foundation stated that the prize “emphasizes the importance of grassroots mobilization and joint efforts to ensure basic human rights in wartime.”
Facts about ERR in Sudan:
* Emergency Response Rooms (ERR) is a grassroots network formed in Sudan’s capital Khartoum after the outbreak of civil war in 2023.
* The network continues the values of the resistance committees that were active in the revolution that ended long-time dictator omar Al-bashir’s rule in 2019.
* ERR has thousands of members and is currently active in 13 of Sudan’s 18 states.
* The network provides health care, delivers food and water, transports the dead, and organizes funerals.
* Members are also working on monitoring, documenting, and following up on cases of sexual violence.
* ERR is awarded the Rafto Prize for 2025.
Sources: The Rafto Fifteen,ERR,Time,World Food Program (WFP),Bergens Avisen (BA).