Geneva, January 13 (Darfur24)
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk will begin an official visit to Sudan on Wednesday, lasting until January 18, as UN agencies warn of escalating violence, collapsing health services, and new displacement waves in Kordofan.
In a statement, the Human Rights Commission said Türk will meet authorities in Port Sudan, representatives of civil society, and the United Nations country team. He will also visit Northern State, including the Al-Afad displacement shelter, to meet with people displaced by conflict in Darfur and Kordofan, as well as humanitarian partners working on the ground.
The commission added that Türk will hold two press conferences at the end of his visit — one in Port Sudan and another in Nairobi.
Meanwhile, UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric stated that the Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy for Sudan, Ramtane Lamamra, will be in Cairo until January 15 to attend the fifth meeting of the Sudan Advisory Group, hosted by Egypt, which aims to coordinate international efforts to support peace initiatives in Sudan.
Separately, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned that escalating insecurity across Kordofan is crippling health services and driving fresh displacement. OCHA reported that three major hospitals in Dilling, South Kordofan, are out of service due to ongoing shelling, and that four doctors have been killed. Persistent insecurity and siege-like conditions are also restricting access to life-saving aid for civilians trapped in the city.
OCHA further cited the Sudanese Doctors Network, which reported that five civilians were killed and 13 injured in an attack on Kartala market in the Jabal al-Sitta area of South Kordofan on Monday.
The agency renewed its call on all parties to immediately halt attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, respect international humanitarian law, and ensure safe and unhindered humanitarian access.
For its part, the International Organization for Migration said more than 2,200 people were displaced last week from Al-Abbasiya and Kadugli localities in South Kordofan, fleeing toward White Nile State.