UN official warns 30 million Sudan civilians face humanitarian emergency amid protracted war News
RomanDeckert, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
UN official warns 30 million Sudan civilians face humanitarian emergency amid protracted war

A senior UN official voiced concern Thursday about the humanitarian crisis in Sudan, stating that approximately 30 million—nearly two-thirds of the nation’s population—are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance as the civil war persists.

During a press briefing in New York, the director of operations and advocacy for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), Edem Wosornu, shared insights from her recent trip to Sudan and Chad, where approximately 850,000 people have sought refuge due to the Sudanese civil war.

Wosornu called attention to how the capital city of North Darfur, El Fasher, has been under siege for 500 days and is suffering from a cholera outbreak that “doesn’t care whether you’re in uniform or a civilian.”

She also explained that approximately 70 aid trucks from the World Food Programme (WFP), World Health Organization (WHO), and UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) are waiting in South Darfur to enter El Fasher and deliver aid. Statewide, Wosornu reported, approximately 680,000 people have experienced extreme famine during the most recent lean season.

Wosornu stated that while fighting has decreased in the capital of Khartoum, it is still “completely a ghost town” with a “palpable sense of trauma everywhere.” She added that the “streets and buildings [are] littered with explosive remnants of war.”

The UN official urged the global community to provide increased funding and aid access while highlighting that post-war support would also be needed. She stated, “Our humanitarian partners are also saying that this needs to stop so we can continue to deliver assistance… Because after the war and everything has stopped, and when the guns are silenced, people still need recovery.”

The conflict, which erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) along with allied militias, has been previously described by the UN as one of the worst humanitarian crises globally. The civil war has led to widespread displacement, famine, killings, and child rapes.

The UN recently warned of the “gender emergency” in Sudan, warning of the severe impact on the country’s humanitarian crisis on women and girls. Amnesty International previously released a report highlighting gender-based and sexual violence against women and girls in the country by the RSF.

Earlier this month, UN officials expressed concern over a large-scale assault on El Fasher, noting the exacerbation of the already dire humanitarian situation. The country has been battling a cholera outbreak for over a year, with over 50,000 confirmed cases and at least 1,350 deaths.

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