Famine in Sudan amid rising violence, aid cuts and world silence, UN says
New York City: The United Nations described the humanitarian situation in Sudan as “an absolute disaster” on Tuesday.
It has officially confirmed famine conditions in the Zamzam camp for displaced people near El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, where a child is dying every two hours from malnutrition. Famine also exists in several other camps for displaced people in and around the city.
“This announcement should stop us all cold because when famine occurs, it means we are too late,” Adem Vosornu, director of operations and advocacy at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told the Security Council meeting. Discuss the humanitarian situation in Sudan.
“It means we haven't done enough. It means we, the international community, have failed. This is a completely man-made crisis and a shameful stain on our collective conscience.”
More than 26 million people in Sudan are now facing acute hunger, he added: “It is three times the size of New York City, full of starving families and malnourished children.”
Rival factions of its military government in the country: the Sudanese Armed Forces, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commonly known as Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. Hemedati. More than 19,000 people have been killed in the conflict that started in April 2023.
James Kariuki, Britain's deputy permanent representative to the UN, told fellow council members: “There is a famine in Sudan and that famine is entirely man-made.”
He accused the Sudanese armed forces of obstructing the delivery of aid to Darfur through actions such as closing the Adre crossing on the border between Chad and Sudan, which is the most direct route for large-scale humanitarian aid. And he said that the Rapid Support Force attack in the region has created conditions for the spread of starvation.
Kariuki called on the warring factions to attend peace talks in Geneva and “engage in good faith to agree on measures for a lasting ceasefire, full humanitarian access and protection of civilians”.
Vosornu said that “hunger is not the only threat people are facing.” The war has displaced more than 10 million people within Sudan, and more than 2 million have fled as refugees to neighboring countries, making it the world's largest displacement crisis.
In the past six weeks alone, some 726,000 people have been displaced as a result of the Rapid Support Force's advances in and out of Sennar state in the country's southeast.
Sudan's health care system has collapsed, Wosornu added, with two-thirds of the population unable to go to a hospital or see a doctor.
In addition, heavy rains in recent weeks have caused flooding in residential neighborhoods and camps for displaced people, including in Kassala and North Darfur, increasing the risk of cholera and other waterborne diseases, OCHA said.
“Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, once the heartbeat of the country, is in ruins,” Wosornu said, adding that she expressed grave concern about the war crimes taking place in the city.
She said Sudanese women and girls under the age of nine were subject to “horrendous levels” of sexual violence, “survivor suicide rates are rising” and “the number of children born of rape is increasing.”
Aid workers in Sudan continue to face harassment, attacks and death. Food, medicines and fuel have been looted. Three trucks have been blocked by the Rapid Support Force in Qabkabiya, west of el-Fashar, for more than a month, OCHA said, depriving malnourished children in the Jammam camp of the aid they need to survive.
Wosornu said recent fighting in Sennar has further blocked the southern route, the UN's main cross-line option to deliver humanitarian aid from Port Sudan to Kordofan and Darfur, hampering humanitarian access.
“Life-saving supplies are ready to be loaded and dispatched to Zamzam at Port Sudan, including essential medicines, nutritional supplies, water purification tablets and soap,” Wosornu said. “It is important that the necessary approvals and safety assurances are not delayed.”
She told council members that it is still possible to “stop this freight train of pain charging from Sudan. But only if we respond with the urgency that this moment demands.”
She called for an immediate ceasefire and urged the warring factions to use all possible channels to allow rapid, safe and uninterrupted delivery of humanitarian aid across the country.
In the absence of a ceasefire, Wosornu said all involved in the conflict must fulfill their obligations under international humanitarian law, adding: “Those who commit grave violations, including sexual violence, must be held accountable.”
He also stressed that more resources are needed to deal with the humanitarian crisis “and we need it now. If we don't get enough funding for aid operations, the response will stop.”
