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June 18, 2024 (New York) – The United Nations on Tuesday expressed concern about escalating violence in Sudan and said the country was facing an impending famine.
Briefing the Security Council, the Director of Operations and Advocacy at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Edem Wosorno, said the focus should be on urgent needs that require immediate and decisive action.
“Famine is imminent. Nearly 5 million people face emergency food shortages,” she said.
The UN official said she was concerned about the lives of 800,000 women, children, the elderly and people with disabilities in El Fasher, North Darfur.
“What we are witnessing here in El Fasher is the result of unchecked and indiscriminate violence, without any regard for the enormous grief and suffering it causes,” she said.
Wosonu said more than 2 million people in 41 hunger hotspots were at high risk of catastrophic hunger in the coming weeks, warning that “7,000 new mothers could die in the coming months if they don’t get food and health care.”
She expressed concern that humanitarian appeals were severely underfunded.
“So far, we have received only $441 million, which is only 16% of our total demand of $2.7 billion,” Vosorno stressed.
She reiterated the importance of protecting civilians and infrastructure, while calling for increased access to humanitarian aid and more funding for aid operations.
Meanwhile, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Africa Martha Ama Akia Bobi expressed concern about the escalating violence, especially in the El Fasher region.
“Despite the efforts of the United Nations, its member states and regional organizations, we have not succeeded in preventing the escalation of violence in the country, particularly in El Fasher,” she said.
Amid calls for an end to the military confrontation, Bobi stressed the importance of the recently adopted Security Council Resolution 2736 of 2024.
She warned of ethnic violence and heavy shelling of densely populated areas.
“The human rights situation remains appalling,” she said, calling for justice for the victims.
Bobi called on all parties to the conflict in Sudan to engage in dialogue.
Similarly, Limiaa Ahmed, senior project director at the Sudanese Family Planning Association, also highlighted the situation of women and girls in the war.
She says the conflict is a war on women and she fled the war-torn country in 2023.
“Sudanese women have paid the price of this war with their lives and bodies,” she noted. They face the risk of sexual violence and exploitation while displaced, in transit, in makeshift shelters and at border crossings. Ahmed said they have been abducted and held in “inhumane and degrading slave-like conditions” in areas controlled by the Rapid Support Forces.
She said her organization provided more than 33 million sexual and reproductive health services in the past 12 months through 15 branches across Sudan.
Ahmed said women-led organisations have spared no efforts to help those affected by gender-based violence, stressing that without them, there would be no peace in the country.
(English stone)
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