MSF and IECAH denounce that global passivity in Sudan and Gaza reflects “contempt for human life”

In Sudan, “deliberate forgetfulness” has been established in a conflict of “extreme violence” that has no signs of abating in 2025, warns the IECAH

Medical facilities are “increasingly” victims of war, either as part of a “deliberate strategy” or due to “reckless negligence”, explains MSF

Dec. 3 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and the Institute for Conflict Studies and Humanitarian Action (IECAH) have denounced that international inaction in the face of the two major humanitarian crises of the moment, those in Sudan and Gaza, with millions of displaced people and thousands of deaths, They are a reflection “of the contempt for human life.”

This is one of the conclusions of the report presented this Tuesday by MSF and IECAH. ‘Humanitarian action in 2023-2024: Sudan and Gaza, an example of international inaction’ talks about the failure to protect the civilian population, the impunity to commit flagrant violations against the most basic rights and the difficulties they face humanitarian workers.

“Both crises reflect the contempt for human life and the collapse of the rules-based international order,” explained Jesús A. Núñez, co-director of the IECAH, who has focused on the “impunity” that allows Israel to continue killing in Gaza. and to the international “lack of action” in Sudan.

“We are in an international context with a truly darkened outlook. There are 56 active conflicts, the highest number since World War II, with 92 countries involved in conflicts that take place beyond their borders,” Núñez listed during the presentation of the report in Madrid.

A “collapse” of the international order based on rules, Núñez explained, with the novelty that it is not only the “rebel” States that question this system, but the countries themselves that consider themselves guarantors, such as the United States, where It remains to be seen what impact the return of Donald Trump has.

In that sense, he has defended the need to strengthen and support international forums such as the United Nations, which “however imperfect” their room for maneuver may be, without them, “we would return to the law of the jungle.”

In parallel to these two unprecedented crises – with 11.8 million displaced people in Sudan and Israel committing “an unmitigated massacre” – instability and violence continues to grow in other regions, which explains the large migratory flows of our time.

The number of people who have been forced to leave their homes due to violence and armed conflict has reached record levels in 2023, with more than 122 million migrants and is expected to reach 130 million this year.

The global response has been the application of much more restrictive immigration policies, in which not only are the most basic humanitarian rights of these people being eroded, but both they and the organizations that assist them are being criminalized.

The Mediterranean Sea and the Darién Gap, some 17,000 square kilometers of lush jungle that serves as a natural border between Panama and Venezuela, continue to be the most dangerous routes for migrants and the greatest challenges for humanitarian organizations.

MEDICAL FACILITIES, ANOTHER TARGET OF THE ATTACKS

The report details that both conflicts, like the war in Ukraine, share the fact that medical facilities and health workers working on the ground are also being targeted by the parties to the conflict. A dynamic that has been increasing since 2023.

In the Gaza Strip, the destruction of health infrastructure has reached “catastrophic levels”, with 33 of the 36 hospitals in the Palestinian enclave totally or partially destroyed, leaving 19 of them disabled.

On the ground, MSF emergency coordinator in the Gaza Strip, Myriam Laroussi, has denounced that “there are no longer safe places” in the Palestinian enclave and for more than two months there has been no daily food distribution. “We have to be creative to provide basic medical care, due to the lack of medications and supplies,” he said.

“The bombings fall day and night”, the Israelis “use evacuation alerts knowing that the population has nowhere to go” and “the attacks are not selective.” “Civilians and humanitarian workers do not know if a bomb will fall on us when we move,” Laroussi said.

Núñez has delved into this particularity of the Israeli attacks and has highlighted that the violence is directed “explicitly” against the civilian population, journalists and humanitarian workers. “The objective is to make the Palestinians see that life there is not possible and that the only alternative is to leave,” he said.

Meanwhile, in Sudan, half a hundred health workers have died since 2023, infrastructure is being looted and destroyed. MFS has put the number of incidents of violence against its staff and facilities at 60.

“In Sudan we have a war with extreme violence, with the parties in conflict without distinguishing between civilians and military, with attacks on markets and camps for displaced people,” said Esperanza Santos, MSF emergency coordinator in that country with 80 percent percent of its medical facilities disabled.

Santos has appealed to the parties to the conflict, as well as foreign governments with special influence in the region, to guarantee the protection of the civilian population and humanitarian workers.

For her part, the general director of MSF, Raquel Ayora, has denounced that “increasingly, health care is one of the victims of war, with devastating effects for the civilian population. Either because it is part of a deliberate strategy of war or because it responds to reckless negligence”.

“Attacking hospitals and medical workers is an unacceptable red line,” he emphasized.

HISTORICAL DEFICIT IN HUMANITARIAN FINANCING

The record demand for humanitarian financing in 2023 – some 57.3 billion dollars, in United Nations figures – has been responded to with a historic deficit that is a reflection, according to the IECAH, of “a system that fails to adapt to the growth of needs” and the “slow diversification” of donors.

Likewise, “the financing focuses on assistance and barely addresses the protection of affected populations,” warned the co-director of the IECAH, Francisco Rey.

For the first time since 2015, the funds that have arrived following the demands of the United Nations have decreased and have only covered 45 percent, remaining at 43.2 billion dollars. Nearly two-thirds of the 45 UN appeals have received barely half, or even less, of what is needed.

Ukraine has been the main recipient, followed by Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan and Palestine, which has experienced growth of up to 182 percent after the start of the Israeli military offensive on the Gaza Strip. Sixth is Sudan, which has not received even half of the required funds.

In the case of support from Spain, although limited, it has grown by close to 35 percent compared to 2022, with a total of 213.55 million euros, with the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa regions as the main recipients.