Global News Desk:
On Friday, the United Nations issued an urgent appeal to
warring factions in Sudan, urging them to permit the delivery of humanitarian
aid to prevent an impending "catastrophic" hunger crisis. A UN
report, obtained by AFP on Friday, indicates that approximately five million
Sudanese are at risk of severe food insecurity in the upcoming months due to
the ongoing yearlong conflict between rival generals, which is causing
significant devastation throughout the country.
The war between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his
former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has since April last year killed tens of
thousands, destroyed infrastructure and crippled the economy.
It has also triggered a dire humanitarian crisis and acute
food shortages, with the country teetering on the brink of famine. Noting that
some 18 million Sudanese are already facing acute food insecurity -- a record
during harvest season -- UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths warned in a
letter to the Security Council that "almost 5 million people could slip
into catastrophic food insecurity in some parts of the country in the coming
months."
He noted that nearly 730,000 Sudanese children -- including
more than 240,000 in Darfur -- are thought to suffer from "severe"
malnutrition. "Aid organizations require safe, rapid, sustained and
unimpeded access --including across conflict lines within Sudan," said UN
Secretary General Antonio Guterres's spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
"A massive mobilization of resources from the
international community is also critical," he added. The UN's World Food
Programme has warned that the war risks "triggering the world's largest
hunger crisis." Jill Lawler, the emergency chief in Sudan for the UN
children's agency UNICEF, said there were enough aid stocks in Port Sudan, but
the problem was getting the aid from there to the people in need.
Lawler said she last week had led the first UN mission to
reach Khartoum state since war erupted 11 months ago. They had seen first-hand
that "the scale and magnitude of needs for children across the country are
simply staggering," she told reporters in Geneva via video link from New
York.
The war "is pushing the country towards a famine"
with hunger "the number one concern people expressed."
'Moment of truth'
Mandeep O'Brien, UNICEF representative in Sudan, said 14
million children needed humanitarian aid and four million were displaced. There
was only a "small window left to prevent mass loss of children's lives and
future," she warned on X, formerly Twitter.
World Health Organization regional director Hanan Balkhy,
who recently returned from a trip to Sudan, underlined the acute needs in
Darfur, saying most health facilities were looted, damaged or destroyed.
Griffiths, the UN aid chief, lamented that fighting
continued to rage during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan despite a Security
Council resolution calling for a cessation of hostilities. "This is a
moment of truth," he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "The parties must
silence the guns, protect civilians and ensure humanitarian access."
The UN on Friday called for more financial support for aid
operations in Sudan. UN spokeswoman Alessandra Vellucci told reporters in
Geneva that the world body had appealed for $2.7 billion to provide aid this
year, but had received just five percent of that amount so far.