At a ministerial meeting on Wednesday, the United Nations and Member States issued an urgent call for stepped-up action to end the war in Sudan and accelerate the humanitarian response in the region. 17 months of brutal conflict in Sudan have fueled the world's worst hunger crisis and one of the world's largest displacement crises, with more than 10 million people forced to flee their homes.
“People in Sudan have endured 17 months of hell, and the suffering continues to grow. Thousands of civilians have been killed, entire communities displaced and deprived of food, families scattered, children traumatized, women raped and abused,” said Joyce Msuya, Acting UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator.
Her remarks were made today at a high-level side event on the sidelines of the 79th session of the General Assembly on “The Cost of Inaction: Urgent and Collective Support to Scale Up the Humanitarian Response in Sudan and the Region” co-hosted by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), as well as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United States, the African Union and the European Union.
The ministerial event was intended to serve as a call for global action to address the deepening humanitarian crisis in Sudan and its spillover effects on the region, as well as to strengthen support for the ongoing humanitarian response.
Msuya said that at this time last year, at a similar event, UN officials warned of a "humanitarian crisis of epic proportions in Sudan" - one that threatened to "deteriorate into a catastrophe" without urgent international action.
"The nightmare that has since unfolded has exceeded our worst fears. The people of Sudan continue to pay the unbearable price of a war in which horrific violations continue unabated," she said, adding:
“Civilians killed in their hundreds in attacks on residential areas. Sexual violence used as a tactic of war, particularly against women and girls. Ethnically motivated attacks, and testimonies of summary execution, rape and forced displacement in West Darfur.”
Relentless hostilities across the country have brought misery to millions of civilians, triggering the world's fastest growing displacement crisis. More than 10.8 million people - half of them children - have fled their homes since April 2023, including more than 2.4 million who have sought safety in neighboring states and other countries.
An estimated 20,000 people have been killed and tens of thousands more injured since the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) erupted in April 2023.
Sudan is now the world's largest hunger crisis, with more than half of the country's population - nearly 26 million people - facing high levels of acute hunger. Famine has been confirmed in the Zamzam camp in North Darfur, with many other areas at risk. Nearly 5 million children under the age of 5 and pregnant and lactating women are already acutely malnourished.
Health care and basic services have been decimated, cholera and other diseases are on the rise, and children are out of school for the second year in a row. The emergency is one of the worst protection crises in recent history, with alarming levels of sexual and gender-based violence continuing to terrorize civilians, especially women and girls.
“And now, as the rainy season and its devastating floods subside, we have seen a rapid escalation of the fighting in El Fasher in North Darfur, causing further death and destruction, with clashes also continuing to directly impact civilians in several other areas,” Msuya said.
“The humanitarian situation in Sudan is beyond appalling,” she added, urging member states to use all their leverage to bring the horrific violations of international humanitarian law and the abuses of human rights law to an end.
“We need humanitarian access to everyone in need, through all necessary routes, ramped-up funding for the response, ironclad commitments to protect civilians, and most of all, real and inclusive steps to end this ruinous war,” Msuya said.
For his part, Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said he had visited Sudan twice this year and the conditions were apocalyptic:
“If people don’t die because of bullets, they starve to death. If they manage to survive, they must face disease or floods, or the threat of sexual violence and other horrifying abuse.”
Grandi said the brutal war has uprooted millions of people, forcing them to leave their homes, schools and jobs behind in search of safety.
“Countries neighboring Sudan are generously hosting a rising number of refugees, but cannot shoulder that responsibility alone,” the High Commissioner said.
Most of those who have crossed borders have sought refuge in the seven countries surrounding the northeast African nation. South Sudan has received the largest number of people from Sudan - about 800,000 - many of them South Sudanese returning after many years. Chad has seen the largest influx of refugees in its history, with more than 646,000 people crossing the border.
“People need humanitarian aid now and support to rebuild their lives. Meaningful peace efforts are also urgently needed so people can eventually return home. The stability of the whole region hangs in the balance,” Grandi added.
Msuya pointed out that despite the courageous efforts of local and international humanitarian organizations, challenges such as a lack of funding, the volatile security situation, bureaucratic and administrative constraints, and recent heavy rains that damaged roads and bridges have prevented an adequate level of assistance from being provided.
The Sudan Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan for 2024 seeks US$2.7 billion to reach 14.7 million people by the end of this year. It is currently less than half funded at 49 percent.
This year's Sudan Regional Refugee Response Plan (RRP) requires $1.5 billion to support 3.3 million refugees, returnees and host communities in seven countries bordering Sudan. The RRP is currently only 25 percent funded.
According to the Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, more than 150 aid agencies operating in the country are able to reach the millions of people facing acute hunger and disease. According to OCHA, approximately 8 million people received at least one form of humanitarian assistance between January and July 2024.
“Let us not be here again, in one year’s time, lamenting another 12 months of death, destruction and unbearable suffering”, Msuya warned.
At the event, the Acting Emergency Relief Coordinator announced the release of a US$25 million allocation from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to address the spread of famine and acute food insecurity in Sudan, and said she hoped this would encourage donor partners to step up with additional flexible funding for Sudan.
The United States today announced nearly $424 million in additional humanitarian assistance for vulnerable people in Sudan and neighboring refugee-hosting countries, including more than $276 million through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and more than $147 million through the Department of State (DoS).
US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield made the announcement at Wednesday's Sudan-focused event.
“The war in Sudan has created the worst humanitarian crisis on Earth, and as leaders gather in New York, the country is on the verge of a generational famine,” she said.
“The United States has worked tirelessly with partners to negotiate life-saving humanitarian access across conflict lines and borders and mediate an end to the violence. The international community must redouble efforts to arrest this spiral of death and destruction. The Sudanese people deserve nothing less.”
USAID said in a statement today, that the US “continues to stand with the people of Sudan and call on the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces to protect civilians, facilitate unhindered access so that aid can reach people in need across Sudan, and return to the negotiating table and end this war that is causing needless suffering for the Sudanese people.”
Further information
Full text: Acting UN relief chief urges swift action to protect Sudanese civilians amid crisis, Remarks by the Acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator during the High-Level Side Event at the 79th Session of the General Assembly on “The Cost of Inaction: Urgent and Collective Support to Scale Up the Humanitarian Response in Sudan and the Region”, delivered September 25, 2024
https://www.unocha.org/news/acting-un-relief-chief-urges-swift-action-protect-sudanese-civilians-amid-crisis
Full text: United States Announces Nearly $424 Million in Additional Humanitarian Assistance for the People of Sudan and Others Affected by the Conflict, USAID, press release, published September 25, 2024
https://www.usaid.gov/news-information/press-releases/sep-25-2024-united-states-announces-nearly-424-million-additional-humanitarian-assistance-people-sudan-and-others-affected-conflict