Sudan worst humanitarian crisis for children in world: UN
August 13, 2024 (NEW YORK) – Sudan is facing the worst humanitarian crisis for children in the world, the United Nations said, as peace talks begin in Geneva.
The spokesperson for the UN Children Fund (UNICEF), James Elder, said the more than one-year conflict in Sudan has witnessed the killing of thousands of children.
“Five million children have been forced to flee their homes, a staggering average of 10,000 girls and boys displaced every single day, making Sudan the world’s largest child displacement crisis,” said Elder.
He added, “It is also a crisis of neglect. So many of the countless atrocities upon children in Sudan have gone unreported, often as a result of very limited access.”
The United Nations migration agency (IOM) has described the current humanitarian situation in Sudan as being at “a catastrophic breaking point”, more than a year after fighting broke out in the country.
The situation, it said, has been worsened by famine, floods and massive displacements as millions of people face the impact of Sudan’s ongoing conflict.
A recent assessment by the Famine Review Committee (FRC) of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) revealed that famine conditions are prevalent in parts of North Darfur, including the Zamzam camp in El Fasher.
The Zamzam Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp, south of El Fasher town is one of the largest IDP camps with an estimated population of at least 500,000. The situation has been worsened by the escalating violence in Sudan, which has been persisting for over 15 months now, severely impeding humanitarian access.
New figures, IOM says, show displacement continues to soar, with over 10.7 million people seeking safety within the country, many displaced twice or more. Fighting in Sennar state alone displaced over 700,000 people last month, 63 percent of whom were originally displaced from other states, the majority from Khartoum.
Floods have reportedly also displaced more than 20,000 people across 11 of Sudan’s 18 states, while the existing critical infrastructure has been washed away.
This, IOM said, has further disrupted the delivery of vital humanitarian assistance.
“Make no mistake, these conditions will persist and worsen if the conflict and restrictions on humanitarian access continue”, said Othman Belbeisi, IOM’s Regional Director for Middle East North Africa.
He added, “Without an immediate, massive, and coordinated global response, we risk witnessing tens of thousands of preventable deaths in the coming months. We are at breaking point, a catastrophic, cataclysmic breaking point.”
Aid agencies say humanitarian and protection conditions in Sudan are among the worst in the world due to the conflict characterized by human rights violations, ethnic targeting, massacres of civilian populations and gender-based violence.
Restrictions on humanitarian access, including impediments imposed by parties to the conflict, have severely curtailed the ability of aid organizations to scale up and save lives, especially during the current rainy season.
Despite these restrictions, IOM and its partners continue to respond and have reached more than two million people with life-saving assistance since the start of the conflict.
IOM calls for urgent funding to scale up the response and reach those still in desperate need of food, shelter, water, health services and specialized protection.
According to the UN, about 25.6 million people or over half of the population of Sudan face acute hunger, including more than 755,000 people on the brink of famine. Also, an estimated 10.7 million people are now internally displaced in Sudan.
(ST)