“The The scale of the emergency is shockingas well as the insufficient measures being taken to contain the conflict,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the UN World Health Organization (WHO).
Speaking to reporters from the Red Sea city of Port Sudan, Dr Tedros said the conflict had so far claimed more than 20,000 lives (though the number is likely higher) and created the world’s largest internal displacement crisis, with more than 10 million people displaced within the country and another two million forced to flee to neighbouring countries.
‘Crisis falls on deaf ears’
Since April 2023, Sudan has been embroiled in a deadly conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
After 500 days of fighting, in addition to the rising death toll and the number of displaced people, catastrophic seasonal flooding has further damaged vital infrastructure, disease outbreaks such as cholera and malaria are on the rise, and there have been numerous cases of conflict-related sexual violence Cases have been reported and famine is raging in some parts of the country.
Concluding his two-day visit, Dr Tedros said: “25.6 million people – more than half of Sudan’s population – are expected to face high levels of acute food insecurity.” He also noted that 70 to 80 percent of the country’s health facilities are not operating at full capacity.
Despite these sobering statistics and the fact that WHO has been sounding the alarm since the beginning of the conflict while working with partners to address a number of challenges, “the international community seems to have forgotten Sudan and is paying little attention to the conflict that is tearing the country apart, with repercussions across the region,” said Dr Tedros.
‘The best medicine is peace’
“The conflict has left some 25 million people… in dire need of humanitarian assistance. Of these, 14.7 million are in urgent need of a range of life-saving support, for which the humanitarian sector has requested $2.7 billion, less than half of which has been funded.”
He called for a range of measures that could save millions of lives: protection of health facilities, health workers and patients – health must not be the target; continued access to supplies and aid; scaling up disease surveillance and vaccination rates; and “a massive increase in the international community’s finances to scale up the response.”
“We call on the world to wake up and help Sudan emerge from the nightmare it is in,” the UN health chief said, adding that an immediate ceasefire is needed, leading to a lasting political solution.
“The best medicine is peace,” he added.
