Citizens of conflict-affected The UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Sudan issued a warning on Wednesday, saying that the country is “trapped in an inferno of brutal violence” and that the rainy season and blocked aid are putting people at risk of starvation.
Since the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) went to war in April 2023, tens of thousands of people have perished and millions have been displaced.
“Famine is closing in. Diseases are closing in. The fighting is closing in and there’s no end in sight,” Clementine Nkweta-Salami told a press conference.
It is anticipated that the dire circumstances would only get worse, with “just six weeks before the lean season sets in, when food becomes less available, and more expensive.”
When the country’s rainy season begins, Nkweta-Salami noted that over four million people could face starvation and that “reaching people in need becomes even more difficult.”
Additionally, she warned that “if we aren’t able to procure and deliver seeds for farmers,” the planting season in the area “could fail.”
And “after more than a year of conflict, the people of Sudan are trapped in an inferno of brutal violence.”
“In short, the people of Sudan are in the path of a perfect storm that is growing more lethal by the day,” Nkweta-Salami warned, adding that the humanitarian community needs “unfettered access to reach people in need, wherever they are.”
Concern over reports of intense combat in crowded areas has grown in recent days, as the RSF attempts to take control of El-Fasher, the only major city in the western Darfur region that it does not currently control.
“Right now the humanitarian assistance they rely on can’t get through,” Nkweta-Salami said.
More than a dozen UN trucks loaded with medical equipment and food, which left Port Sudan on April 3, have still not reached El Fasher, she said, “due to insecurity and delays in getting clearances at checkpoints.”
