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13 August 2024 (New York) – Sudan is facing the world’s worst humanitarian crisis for children, the United Nations said as peace talks began in Geneva.
UNICEF spokesman James Elder said the conflict in Sudan, which has lasted more than a year, has killed thousands of children.
“Five million children have been forced to flee their homes, with an average of 10,000 children displaced every day, making Sudan the world’s largest child displacement crisis,” Elder said.
He added: “It is also a neglected crisis. Many of the countless atrocities committed against children in Sudan go unreported, often due to very limited media access.”
The United Nations Migration Organization (IOM) has described Sudan’s current humanitarian situation as “at a catastrophic tipping point,” more than a year after war broke out in the country.
Millions of people are facing the impact of ongoing conflict in Sudan, with the situation exacerbated by famine, flooding and mass displacement, the report said.
The recent Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) assessment by the Famine Review Committee (FRC) shows widespread famine conditions in parts of North Darfur, including in the Zam Zam refugee camp in El Fasher.
The Zam Zam IDP camp, located south of the town of El Fasher, is one of the largest IDP camps, with an estimated population of at least 500,000. The situation has further deteriorated as violence in Sudan has continued for more than 15 months, severely hampering humanitarian access.
The International Organization for Migration said the latest data showed that the number of displaced people continued to soar, with more than 10.7 million people seeking safety within the country, many displaced twice or more. Fighting in Sennar state alone displaced more than 700,000 people in the last month, 63% of whom originally came from other states, most of them from Khartoum.
The floods have also reportedly displaced more than 20,000 people in 11 of Sudan’s 18 states, and destroyed existing critical infrastructure.
The International Organization for Migration said this further disrupted the delivery of vital humanitarian aid.
“There is no doubt that these conditions will persist and worsen if the conflict and restrictions on humanitarian access continue,” said Ousmane Belbesi, IOM’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.
He added: “Without an immediate, massive, coordinated global response, we could witness tens of thousands of preventable deaths in the coming months. We are at a tipping point, a catastrophic tipping point.”
Aid agencies say Sudan’s humanitarian and security conditions are among the worst in the world due to human rights violations, racial discrimination, killings of civilians and gender-based violence in the conflict.
Restrictions on humanitarian access, including obstacles imposed by parties to the conflict, have severely undermined the ability of aid organizations to scale up assistance and save lives, especially during the current rainy season.
Despite these restrictions, IOM and its partners have continued to operate, providing life-saving assistance to more than 2 million people since the start of the conflict.
IOM is calling for urgent funding to scale up its response to help those who still urgently need food, shelter, water, health services and specialized protection.
According to the United Nations, about 25.6 million people in Sudan (more than half of the country’s total population) are facing severe hunger, of which 755,000 are on the brink of famine. In addition, about 10.7 million people are currently displaced within the country.
(English stone)
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