The appeal for humanitarian aid from the UN to help Sudan, in the grip of a civil war and which is sinking into crisis, is “catastrophically underfunded”, at only 12%, denounced the UN on Friday May 17. The UN and other humanitarian partners need 2.7 billion dollars (around 2.5 billion euros) this year to help some 15 million people who urgently need aid, explained Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), in Geneva.
“The famine is approaching. Diseases are getting closer. The fighting is moving closer to civilians, particularly in Darfur”declared Mr. Laerke during the regular UN press briefing in Geneva, recalling that overall, 25 million people, or half of Sudan’s population, need assistance. “This is not just an underfunded appeal, it is a catastrophically underfunded appealhe stressed. Without the rapid arrival of additional resources, humanitarian organizations will not be able to scale up their efforts in time to stave off famine and prevent further deprivation. »
For a year, Sudan has been in the grip of a war between the army, led by General Abdel Fattah Al-Bourhane, and the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (FSR), of his former deputy turned rival, General Mohammed Hamdan Daglo. For several weeks, the international community has been warning of imminent carnage in El-Fasher, the last major town in Darfur not to have fallen into the hands of the RSF and which was until then relatively spared.
In a telephone interview on Tuesday with the two warring generals, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, “urged them both to act immediately – and publicly – to defuse the situation”, indicated its spokesperson, Ravina Shamdasani, during the press briefing. The high commissioner, who called the two men separately, had been trying since August 2023 to speak to them directly, said Mr.me Shamdasani. He did “state of his deep distress” with them and demanded respect for international law as well as a ceasefire.