GENEVA: Funding cuts are driving an entire generation of children in Sudan to the brink of irreversible harm as support is scaled back and malnutrition cases persist across the country, the UN children’s agency said on Tuesday.
UNHCR and other UN agencies face one of the worst funding crises in decades, compounded by US and other donor states’ decisions to slash foreign aid funding.
“Children have limited access to safe water, food, health care. Malnutrition is rife, and many good children are reduced to just skin, bones,” said Sheldon Yett, UNICEF’s Representative in Sudan, speaking via video link from Port Sudan.
Sudan’s conflict between the army and rival Rapid Support Forces has displaced millions and split the country into rival zones of control with the RSF still deeply embedded in western Sudan.
Several areas to the south of Sudan’s capital Khartoum are at risk of famine, the World Food Programme said in July.
Children were being cut off from life-saving services due to funding cuts, while the scale of need is staggering, UNICEF said.
“With recent funding cuts, many of our partners in Khartoum and elsewhere have been forced to scale back... We are being stretched to the limit across Sudan, with children dying of hunger,” Yett said.
“We on the verge of irreversible damage being done to an entire generation of children in Sudan.”
Only 23 percent of the 4.6 billion dollar global humanitarian response plan for Sudan has been funded, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Access to areas in need also continues to be a challenge, with some roads rendered inaccessible due to the rainy season, hampering aid delivery efforts, UNICEF said. Other areas continue to be under siege, such as Al-Fashir.
“It has been one year since famine was confirmed in ZamZam camp and no food has reached this area. Al-Fashir remains under siege. We need that access now,” said Jens Laerke of OCHA.
Funding cuts drive Sudan’s children to the brink of irreversible harm, UNICEF says
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Funding cuts drive Sudan’s children to the brink of irreversible harm, UNICEF says
- UNHCR and other UN agencies face one of the worst funding crises in decades, compounded by US and other donor states’ decisions to slash foreign aid funding
- Children were being cut off from life-saving services due to funding cuts, while the scale of need is staggering, UNICEF said
Iran temporarily closes airspace to most flights
WASHINGTON: Iran temporarily closed its airspace to all flights except international ones to and from Iran with official permission at 5:15 p.m. ET on Wednesday, according to a notice posted on the Federal Aviation Administration’s website.
The prohibition is set to last for more than two hours until 7:30 p.m. ET, or 0030 GMT, but could be extended, the notice said. The United States was withdrawing some personnel from bases in the Middle East, a US official said on Wednesday, after a senior Iranian official said Tehran had warned neighbors it would hit American bases if Washington strikes.
Missile and drone barrages in a growing number of conflict zones represent a high risk to airline traffic. India’s largest airline, IndiGo said some of its international flights would be impacted by Iran’s sudden airspace closure. A flight by Russia’s Aeroflot bound for Tehran returned to Moscow after the closure, according to tracking data from Flightradar24.
Earlier on Wednesday, Germany issued a new directive cautioning the country’s airlines from entering Iranian airspace, shortly after Lufthansa rejigged its flight operations across the Middle East amid escalating tensions in the region.
The United States already prohibits all US commercial flights from overflying Iran and there are no direct flights between the countries. Airline operators like flydubai and Turkish Airlines have canceled multiple flights to Iran in the past week. “Several airlines have already reduced or suspended services, and most carriers are avoiding Iranian airspace,” said Safe Airspace, a website run by OPSGROUP, a membership-based organization that shares flight risk information.
“The situation may signal further security or military activity, including the risk of missile launches or heightened air defense, increasing the risk of misidentification of civil traffic.” Lufthansa said on Wednesday that it would bypass Iranian and Iraqi airspace until further notice while it would only operate day flights to Tel Aviv and Amman from Wednesday until Monday next week so that crew would not have to stay overnight.
Some flights could also be canceled as a result of these actions, it added in a statement. Italian carrier ITA Airways, in which Lufthansa Group is now a major shareholder, said that it would similarly suspend night flights to Tel Aviv until Tuesday next week.
