UNITED NATIONS: Rhino – The deadly combination of hunger, displacement and disease outbreaks is creating a perfect storm for a catastrophic loss of life in Sudan, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Thursday.
In its latest update Thursday, OCHA reported that the World Food Program (WFP) is working around the clock to reach 8.4 million people by the end of the year to overcome hunger in the country, noting that so far this year, the program has assisted more than five million people, including 1.2 million in the Darfur region.
This comes as UNICEF continues to transport life-saving nutrition supplies sufficient to treat some 215,000 severely malnourished children in Sudan. UNICEF and its partners have provided 6.6 million children in Sudan and their families with safe drinking water this year, at a time when disease outbreaks, including cholera, are worsening.
Children make up about half of the more than 10 million people who have fled their homes since conflict broke out in Sudan last year, OCHA said. Two million of those displaced have crossed into neighboring countries, where the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is providing urgent support.
UNHCR is providing basic protection services and helping to relocate the massive numbers of new arrivals away from border areas to safer places in countries of asylum, the office said, noting that these efforts are severely hampered by underfunding, flooding and insecurity.
This year’s $1.5 billion plan to support the regional refugee response in seven neighboring countries is less than a quarter funded, with only $347 million raised.
Meanwhile, the response inside Sudan was less than half funded, with the 2024 Sudan Humanitarian Response Plan receiving just $1.3 billion of the $2.7 billion needed to reach some 14.7 million people in the country by the end of the year.
More than 113 aid trucks have entered Sudan from Chad through the “Adre” crossing since it was reopened by the Sudanese authorities last month, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at the daily press conference held at the organization’s headquarters in New York on Thursday.
Five more trucks crossed the crossing on Wednesday, he said, adding that supplies through Adré have reached more than 250,000 people in Sudan, including food, nutrition, shelter, medical supplies and other much-needed items.
In a separate development, Dujarric noted that there will be a high-level ministerial event on the escalating crisis in Sudan and the region on Wednesday.
OCHA and UNHCR are hosting the event along with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United States, the European Union and the African Union.
