After famine was confirmed yesterday in several areas of Sudan, the United Nations agencies operating in that country asked this Friday for moremore resources and unhindered access to aid for people in need.
The plan to help nearly 15 million people this year, which requested $2.7 billion, has received less than a third of these funds, which means huge shortcomings and impacts in responding to the emergency.
“To prevent a large-scale famine, donors must urgently increase their financial assistance while using diplomatic means to press for humanitarian access,” said the UN humanitarian coordinator for Sudan.
“Otherwise, we will see an even more catastrophic situation,” warned Clementine Nkweta-Salami.
Man-made crisis
The call comes a day after global food safety experts said that, After 15 months of war, famine prevails in parts of northern Darfurespecially in the Zamzam IDP camp, located near the state capital, El Fasher.
The results reflect the gravity of the situation on the ground and show the relentless suffering of the people of Sudan since the war broke out between rival military forces, Nkewata-Salami said.
“This is a man-made crisis that can be resolved if all parties and stakeholders fulfil their responsibilities and commitments to populations in desperate need,” he added.
Nkewata-Salami recalled that Sudan’s humanitarian community has been sounding the alarm about the catastrophe of hunger and the risk of famine, while the conflict has raged, causing displacement, disrupting basic services, destroying livelihoods and severely restricting humanitarian access.
A woman and her daughter at the health centre in the Philippe neighbourhood of Port Sudan.
More than half of the population suffers from acute hunger
Experts said famine conditions in Zamzam camp, home to some 500,000 people, are likely to persist until October, while 13 other areas are at risk of falling into famine.
They also stated that Sudan faces worst food security levels in its historyMore than half of the population, some 25.6 million people, are suffering from acute hunger. This includes more than 8.5 million facing emergency levels of hunger and more than 755,000 people experiencing catastrophic conditions.
Aid workers have stepped up operations in recent months, but the needs are immense, Nkewata-Salami said.
“The humanitarian community is making progress on multiple fronts, including urgently transporting food, nutritional and health supplies and agricultural inputs to the most at-risk areas, increasing cash assistance to communities in need and increasing presence where hunger is most acute,” he said.
But to do so, he stressed, We need to silence the guns so that humanitarian workers can reach people in need.“We urgently need an injection of funds for the relief operation, as well as safe and unhindered humanitarian access, including across borders and battlefronts.”
Violation of human rights
The regional coordinator of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) joined in calling on donors to increase their aid to Sudan and to end the war.
“The alarm signals have been there for months. Now We have tragic confirmation that there is famine in the Sudanese region of North Darfur“, declared Mamadou Dian Balde.
“With human rights atrocities, the forced displacement of more than ten million people since the beginning of the war last year and the lack of the most basic services for a large percentage of the population, The world’s most pressing humanitarian catastrophe is growing and worsening every daythreatening to engulf the entire region,” he warned.
He also said that as famine and hunger increase in Sudan, people fleeing to neighbouring countries “will arrive in increasingly precarious conditions”.
“Urgent action is vital to prevent further deaths and suffering,” Balde said.
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