NEW YORK CITY: With Sudan midway through the third year of a civil war, four major UN agencies issued an urgent appeal on Friday for a scaled-up humanitarian response in the country, where millions of people continue to face hunger, displacement and the collapse of essential services.
Speaking during a joint virtual briefing, the International Organization for Migration’s deputy director general for operations, Ugochi Daniels, said the situation was now “the world’s worst displacement crisis.”
More than 30 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, she added, and her organization has registered 9.6 million internally displaced persons and 4.3 million people displaced across borders.
Daniels said 2.6 million people who fled to other countries have now returned to Sudan. They include 1 million in Khartoum alone, 94 percent of whom originally came from other parts of the country.
She called for the immediate restoration of key infrastructure and public services, and direct support for vulnerable returnees, host communities and internally displaced persons.
“Humanitarian, development and peace actors must work together,” she said, echoing a call by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for the “immediate cessation of hostilities, the protection of civilians, unhindered humanitarian access and simplified procedures for aid delivery.”
Kelly Clements, the deputy high commissioner of UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency, described the devastation and trauma she witnessed and heard about during recent visits to Port Sudan and Khartoum.
“We heard horrific stories of rights violations, the fear, the utter destruction of infrastructure and services … but also the resilience of the people,” she said.
Since the conflict between rival military factions began in April 2023, about 12 million people have been forced to flee their homes for other parts of Sudan or across borders, Clements noted, which is equivalent to about one in three of the population.
“Their biggest concerns are basic services that aren’t available … they are worried about their security,” she said.
Clements also highlighted Sudan’s continuing generosity, saying: “Despite the war and the challenging context, Sudan continues to host nearly 900,000 refugees and asylum-seekers.”
Ted Chaiban, the UN Children’s Fund’s deputy executive director for humanitarian action and supply operations, said the toll of the crisis is heaviest on youngsters.
“What I saw was alarming,” he said. “Sudan is the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, the conflict is escalating, and children are paying the highest price every day.”
About 1.4 million children are in areas where there is the risk of famine or famine is already present, he added. In North Darfur alone, 150,000 children are likely to suffer severe acute malnutrition this year.
In addition, 14 million children are out of school, Chaiban said, which is “four out of every five children in Sudan,” and at least 350 cases of grave violations against children, including killing and maiming, have been verified in North Darfur in the past six months alone.
The World Food Programme’s assistant executive director, Valerie Guarnieri, highlighted the operational challenges the organization faces in its attempts to reach those most in need, even as it expands its reach.
She said that in September alone, it reached 1.8 million people in famine-risk areas, covering more than 85 percent of the assessed population, up from less than 20 percent previously.
“Humanitarian access remains a critical issue, … in Al-Fasher, El-Dugli and Dilling it remains severely constrained,” she said.
The four agencies together called for urgent and sustained international support for their work in Sudan — including funding, improved humanitarian access, and renewed peace efforts — to enable them to deliver full humanitarian and development responses.