Agencies , August 7(Darfur24)
Two UN officials warned that the humanitarian situation in Sudan “remains an absolute disaster” and that conditions across the country are “horrific and getting worse day by day.”
This came during a session held by the UN Security Council today, Tuesday, to discuss the situation in Sudan, where it heard two briefings from the Director of Operations and Advocacy at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Edem Wosorno, and the Assistant Executive Director of the World Food Program, Stephen Omollo.
Wosorno said that 26 million people in Sudan are suffering from acute hunger, “which is equivalent to three times the size of New York City, (but) full of hungry families and malnourished children.”
She noted that people continue to flee, with 10 million people forced to flee their homes due to violence, hunger and deprivation, adding that this includes 726,000 people displaced within and outside Sennar State, in the southeast of the country, since June 25 after the Rapid Support Forces advanced into the state, “that is three-quarters of a million people displaced in just six weeks.”
“Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, which was once the beating heart of the country, is now in ruins,” the UN official said.
Edem Wosoorno, Director of Operations and Advocacy at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, briefing the Security Council.
Famine in Zamzam Camp
Wsoorno referred to the Famine Review Committee’s declaration of famine in parts of Sudan’s North Darfur State, saying: “This declaration should freeze us all. Because when famine occurs, it means that we are too late. It means that we have not done enough. It means that we, the international community, have failed.” “This is an entirely man-made crisis, and a stain on our collective conscience,” she added.
The UN official also noted that 480 days of conflict have pushed millions of civilians into a “quagmire of violence, death, injury and inhumane treatment.” She said there are serious concerns about war crimes being committed throughout the conflict, adding that women and girls in Sudan continue to be subjected to the worst behavior of the parties to the conflict.
Wusorno stressed that the humanitarian community in Sudan continues to work against all odds to provide life-saving assistance to civilians in need, noting that humanitarian partners have reached 2.5 million people in areas falling within phases four and five of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, including 1.8 million people with food security and livelihoods assistance, 800,000 people with water, sanitation and hygiene support, and 237,000 people with health care.
She noted that the United Nations and its partners cannot go far in providing assistance without adequate access and the resources they need.
Four demands
The Director of Operations and Advocacy at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs confirmed that life-saving supplies in Port Sudan are ready to be loaded and sent to Zamzam camp, including essential medicines, food supplies, water purification tablets and soap.
She added that relief supplies for the Zamzam population are readily available in eastern Chad, but heavy rains have flooded the Tina crossing, the only border crossing currently allowed for humanitarian agencies between eastern Chad and Darfur after the Sudanese authorities revoked permission to use the Adre crossing in February.
She added: “As a result, we are simply unable to move the large amount of supplies required to save lives and fight famine.”
Wusorno reiterated four key demands: “An end to the conflict; the need for the parties to abide by their obligations under international humanitarian law; the need for rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access across Sudan, by all possible routes; and the provision of more resources.”
“If we do not receive adequate funding for the assistance operation, including flexible funding that can better enable local partners to do their jobs, the response will stall,” she warned.
“The people of Sudan desperately need and deserve more than our words,” Wesorno said at the end of her briefing. “They need this Council, they need all Member States, they need the wider international community to act, to pull Sudan out of this abyss.”
Shrinking humanitarian space
WFP Assistant Executive Director Stephen Omollo warned in his briefing to the Council that “this humanitarian crisis has not received the political and diplomatic attention it desperately needs, yet it has wider implications and threatens to destabilize the wider region.”
He stressed that the confirmation of the famine should serve as a wake-up call to the international community and to the members of the Security Council, noting that all parties to the conflict are failing to meet their obligations and commitments under international humanitarian law, adding that “the humanitarian space is shrinking all the time.”
He said both parties to the conflict routinely block requests for cross-line movement approvals, severely limiting the amount of aid that can get through, “preventing us from working at scale.”
He renewed his call for the Adre crossing to be made officially available to aid agencies without further delay, stressing that “sustained and predictable flows of humanitarian supplies are critical to stopping the rising death toll.”
“Political will and leadership”
The WFP Assistant Executive Director stressed that despite the enormous challenges facing WFP teams on the ground, it is working day and night to get life-saving food where it is most needed.
“WFP will prioritize reaching people facing emergency and catastrophic levels of hunger – IPC Phase 4 and 5 – as well as internally displaced people,” Omollo said.
He stressed the urgent need for the Security Council’s help “to ensure we can