Guterres warns of the “nightmares” of epidemics, hunger and rape of the Sudanese after 18 months of war

MADRID 28 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, warned this Monday of the various “nightmares” that millions of people in Sudan have to face, as an internal conflict continues that has caused the world’s largest crisis of displacement and hundreds of hungry people.

Guterres has focused on the serious humanitarian crisis that has caused a conflict that has lasted for eighteen months, since the “brutal fighting” broke out, he stressed, between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). ) that derailed the transition process after the 2019 overthrow of President Omar Hasan al Bashi.

“Suffering increases day by day and almost 25 million people need help,” Guterres said before the United Nations Security Council, from where he once again listed the series of “nightmares” suffered by the Sudanese: displacement, sexual violence , hunger, disease and extreme weather.

Thus, he reported that it is now “the largest displaced persons crisis in the world, with more than 11 million people fleeing since April of last year, including almost 3 million who have crossed to neighboring countries.”

Guterres has reported that more than 750,000 people are at risk of catastrophic food insecurity, especially in those areas where displaced people accumulate, who in turn face diseases due to lack of sanitation, such as cholera, malaria, dengue, measles and rubella.

On the other hand, the consequences of the fighting are added to those of an “extreme climate”, with almost 600,000 people affected by heavy rains and floods this summer. He also added that “Sudan is once again rapidly becoming a nightmare of mass ethnic violence.”

Guterres has conditioned the success of any initiative on the real commitment of the parties in conflict to agree on a ceasefire. Instead, he lamented, they are intensifying the attacks, under the protection of foreign powers that “are adding fuel to the fire.”

This conflict, Guterres has ventured, could be the prelude to a greater crisis at all levels, drawing a map of instability that extends from the Sahel to the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea.

In addition to a ceasefire at all levels and humanitarian pauses, Guterres has urged the international community to intensify diplomacy, operations with regional organizations and, above all, not to stop financial funds to be able to launch programs and distribute aid. humanitarian.

“Our $2.7 billion humanitarian appeal is only 56 percent funded, and the level of funding for the regional refugee response plan is even more inadequate,” he said.

UNITED NATIONS FORCE ON THE FIELD

Guterres has also focused on the protection of the civilian population, as well as on reports of attacks by both the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces. “The perpetrators of serious violations against International Humanitarian Law must be held accountable,” he claimed.

At the same time, he has echoed the demands of a part of Sudanese civil society, who ask for “some type of impartial force, to protect civilians”, which reflects, he insisted, in “the seriousness and urgency of the situation that the civilian population in the country has to face.

However, Guterres has acknowledged that “the conditions for the successful deployment of United Nations troops do not currently exist,” but the organization is willing to work on operational alternatives that “can contribute significantly to the reduction of violence.”