UN Warns of Perfect Storm for Catastrophic Loss of Life in Sudan
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The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has warned that a deadly combination of hunger, displacement, and disease outbreaks is creating a "perfect storm" for catastrophic loss of life in Sudan.
In its latest update released on Thursday, the office reported that the World Food Programme is working around the clock to reach 8.4 million people by the end of the year to combat hunger in the country, noting that the program has assisted more than five million people so far in 2024, including 1.2 million in the Darfur region.
This comes as UNICEF continues to deliver life-saving nutrition supplies sufficient to treat approximately 215,000 acutely malnourished children in Sudan. UNICEF and its partners have provided safe drinking water to about 6.6 million children and their families in Sudan this year, as disease outbreaks, including cholera, have intensified.
OCHA explained that children make up about half of the more than 10 million people who have been displaced from their homes since the conflict erupted in Sudan last year. Two million of these displaced people have crossed into neighboring countries, where the UN High Commissioner for Refugees is providing urgent support.
The office reported that UNHCR is providing essential protection services and assisting in the relocation of large numbers of new arrivals away from border areas to safer locations in host countries, noting that these efforts are severely hampered by underfunding, floods, and insecurity.
This years 1.5 billion plan to support the regional refugee response in seven neighboring countries has been funded at less than a quarter, with only 347 million raised so far.
Meanwhile, the response inside Sudan has been less than half-funded, with the 2024 Sudan Humanitarian Response Plan receiving only about 1.3 billion of the 2.7 billion needed to reach around 14.7 million people in the country by the end of the year.
Adre Border Crossing
UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said at a daily press briefing at UN Headquarters in New York on Thursday that more than 113 aid trucks have entered Sudan from Chad via the Adre border crossing since its reopening by Sudanese authorities last month.
He added that five more trucks crossed the border on Wednesday, adding that supplies through Adre had reached more than 250,000 people in Sudan, and these supplies include food, nutrition, shelter, medical supplies, and other urgently needed items.
Meeting on the Crisis
In a separate development, Dujarric noted that next Wednesday (September 25), there will be a high-level ministerial meeting on the escalating crisis in Sudan and the region.
He explained that OCHA and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees are co-hosting this meeting, along with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United States, the European Union, and the African Union.
