6.3 million will face famine if political inaction persists in Sudan: UN
September 24, 2023 (NEW YORK) – 6.3 million people in Sudan could face famine, five months after fighting broke out between the Sudan Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, a top UN official warned.
“These numbers will keep growing, as long as the guns keep talking,” Rosemary DiCarlo, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs told the General Assembly (UNGA) last week.
She said civil society actors have continuously reported about the worsening humanitarian conditions in the shelters across the country.
Di Carlo, in her addressed, urged the international community to “do more to help stop the fighting and find a path to a political settlement and warned for the further cost of continued political inaction.
“Political inaction on Sudan has already exacted a heavy cost, with thousands of civilians killed, injured, and displaced. In addition to essential humanitarian action, we also need an increase in effective diplomacy,” she stressed.
The UN agency (OCHA) earlier warned that without more humanitarian intervention, “20.3 million people will be food insecure”.
In its update of the situation in Sudan today, OCHA reported that as of September 19, 5.3 million people across the country, have fled their homes and sought refuge in Sudan or within neighbouring countries.
“The longer the conflict continues, and low funding levels persist, the more devastating the impact,” partly read the report.
According to the humanitarian agency, the revised 2023 Sudan Humanitarian Response Plan was only 27% funded as of September 13.
“So far, of the 18.1 million people targeted for humanitarian assistance, 3.5 million people have received food, shelter, health, nutrition, protection and other assistance and services,” it stressed.
Briefing a high-level ministerial event last week, Martin Griffiths, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, expressed concerns about the plight of people affected by the conflict in Sudan.
He called for a concerted international push for help in areas where it is needed.
With fighting continuing across the country, brutal sexual violence rising, widespread deliberate and indiscriminate attacks on civilians, and journalists and human rights defenders being silenced, the country has fallen over the edge, human rights and humanitarian organization stated in an open letter last week.
At least 20.3 million people across Sudan are acutely food insecure and need food and livelihood assistance between July and September 2023, according to the latest integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) on the war-torn nation.
(ST)