In a bleak assessment of the dire situation in Sudan, where the conflict continues for the second time in a year, the heads of 19 global humanitarian organizations have warned that further obstacles to delivering aid will mean “swift and massive” that “more people will die”.
UN Aid Coordination Office OCHA Spokesman Jens Laerke told reporters in Geneva that “famine is likely to break out in large parts of the country, more people will flee to neighboring countries, children will succumb to disease and malnutrition and women and girls will face even greater suffering and dangers.” are confronted”.
Staggering scale of hunger
About 18 million people in the country are already suffering from acute hunger and 3.6 million children are acutely malnourished, the OCHA spokesperson said.
These children are in great danger, Mr. Laerke emphasized, because “they are ten to eleven times more likely to die” than young people who have enough to eat.
Despite rising needs, aid workers continue to face “systematic barriers and deliberate denial of access by parties to the conflict,” the joint statement from the humanitarian organizations said.
Too dangerous to enter
Mr Laerke stressed that “movements across conflict lines into parts of Khartoum, Darfur, Aj Jazirah and Kordofan have been cut off since mid-December” and that nearly 860,000 people in these areas were denied humanitarian assistance in March and April this year.
Conditions for aid delivery are “very poor and dangerous,” he added, underscoring that aid workers are being killed, injured and harassed, while humanitarian supplies are being looted.
In addition, the closure in February of the Adré border crossing from Chad to West Darfur reduced aid delivery in Darfur to a “trickle.”
Good luck Darfur
In a more positive development last week, the UN World Food Program (WFP) trucks managed to enter Sudan from Chad through the Tine border crossing. The agency reported that 1,200 tons of food supplies for about 116,000 people are being transported through the Darfur region.
Leni Kinzli of WFP Sudan confirmed on Friday that the convoys bound for Central Darfur (Umshalaya and Rongatas) have reached their final destination, while the convoy en route to twelve destinations in South Darfur, including the displaced persons camps in Nyala, is still en route.
Meanwhile, Mr Laerke warned that in North Darfur’s capital El Fasher, where fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has recently intensified, around 800,000 civilians are bracing for a “ impending, large-scale attack. ”.
Attacked from all sides
The UN’s top aid official in the country, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, spoke on Thursday warned that civilians are “under attack from all sides.”
She said that medical facilities, displaced persons camps and critical civilian infrastructure in El Fasher; North Darfur state is being targeted by the parties to the conflict, while parts of the city are without electricity and water.
In their joint statement, the heads of humanitarian organizations called on the warring parties to protect civilians, facilitate humanitarian access and adopt a nationwide ceasefire.
Referring to Sudan’s two main warring factions, the SAF and RSF, Mr Laerke said:We want these generals to find a way to resolve their differences, not through violence that kills, maims and rapes hundreds of thousands of people in Sudan.but do it in a different way.”
Concerned about low levels of funding for the crisis, humanitarian organizations also called on donors to urgently implement commitments made at the International Humanitarian Conference for Sudan and its Neighborhood Countries in Paris on April 15.
Nearly five months into the year, Sudan’s $2.7 billion humanitarian appeal is still only 16 percent funded.