The people of Sudan are trapped in a “hell of brutal violence” as famine and fighting loom, UN says

UNITED NATIONS (AP) – The Sudanese people “are trapped in a hell of brutal violence” with hungerillness and fighting The situation is getting closer and there is no end in sight, the UN’s top humanitarian official in the war-torn country said Wednesday.

Clementine Nkweta-Salami told a UN press conference that “horrific atrocities are being committed with reckless abandon, reports of rape, torture and ethnically motivated violence are coming in”, communities and families have been torn apart and almost 9 million people have been forced to flee their homes in what is now the biggest displacement crisis in the world.

Earlier this month, the UN food agency warned warring parties in Sudan that there is a serious risk of widespread spread. famine and death in Darfur and other parts of Sudan if they do not allow humanitarian aid to enter the vast western region – an opinion shared Wednesday by Nkweta-Salami.

Sudan descended into conflict in mid-April 2023, when long-standing tensions between its military led by General Abdel Fattah Burhanand the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, broke out into street battles in the capital, Khartoum. Fighting has spread to other parts of the country, especially urban areas and the vast western region of Darfur, and the UN says more than 14,000 people have been killed and 33,000 injured.

Paramilitary forces, known as the RSF, have gained control of most of Darfur and are besieging the key city of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur and the only capital they do not hold.

Nkweta-Salami told a UN press conference that hostilities in El Fasher have been escalating and clashes over the weekend and earlier this week have caused dozens of casualties and displaced many more of the 800,000 people still in the city.

She said there are just six weeks left until the start of the “lean season,” when food becomes less available and more expensive. It also coincides with the rainy season, when reaching people is very difficult because flooded roads become impassable, and with the end of the planting season, when the UN needs to provide seeds to farmers, she said.

The UN humanitarian coordinator for Sudan called for “more funding and speed”.

On April 15, donors pledged $2.1 billion in humanitarian aid for Sudan, but Nkweta-Salami said the UN’s $2.7 billion humanitarian appeal – to help almost 15 million of the country’s 58 million people – is only 12% funded.

“Without more resources, we will not be able to expand in time to avoid hunger and more deprivations”, she warned.

Leni Kinzli, regional spokesperson for the UN World Food Programme, said on May 3 that at least 1.7 million people in Darfur were suffering hunger emergency levels in Sudan in December, and the number is expected to be “much higher” now.

“People are resorting to eating grass and peanut shells,” Kinzli said. “And if assistance does not reach them soon, we risk seeing widespread starvation and death in Darfur and other conflict-affected areas of Sudan.”

Nkweta-Salami demanded unfettered access to millions of people in need, calling for more aid deliveries from Chad, which borders Darfur, and across conflict lines.

She said food, water and medicine are desperately needed in El Fasher, which is now completely surrounded. As an example of the difficulties the UN and other aid agencies face, she said a UN convoy of more than a dozen trucks carrying essential supplies for 120,000 people left Port Sudan on April 3 but has not yet reached El Fasher due to insecurity, checkpoints and delays in obtaining permits.

Nkweta-Salami urged parties involved in the fighting in and around El Fasher to retreat to avoid what would be “a catastrophic impact on the civilian population”.

“And most of all, we need more engagement to end this war” and to hold parties to the conflict accountable, she said. “The international community cannot stand by while this crisis spirals out of control – while the noose of this conflict tightens its grip on the civilian population.”