Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, 6th Feb. International Migration Agency on Monday warned that 25 million people need humanitarian assistance in Sudan, 14 million of them children, in a press release issued in New York.
UN migration agency IOM and top rights experts sent urgent appeal which is backed global calls for a ceasefire, warned that “every moment of continued violence, puts more lives at risk”.
IOM and its partner agencies noted that heavy fighting began last April between rival forces and spread across Sudan has pushed more than 1.7 million people into neighbouring countries and uprooted some 10 million in total.
Egypt hosts more than 415,000 people where IOM helps Sudan’s displaced to rebuild their lives, like Mohammed.
He fled Khartoum, taking a dangerous bus journey to Egypt last May.
It took two days, during which time he saw “unimaginable horrors” including homes shot at or burned.
Mohammed remains deeply worried about his relatives who are trapped by fighting in Al Fashir in northern Darfur.
Top rights experts echoed those concerns said that 4 in 10 people in Sudan now face acute hunger – 17.7 million in all.
They warned that the ongoing conflict had worsened communal tensions.
The experts said that equally concerning are the lack of resources and lack of international aid, which have “significantly increased the risk of violence between host communities and IDPs”, referred to internally displaced people.
They warned that the elderly, people with disabilities, women and girls are “falling victims of targeted attacks by the members of the host community”.
IOM stressed in a statement that aid “must reach the millions in need. People must be able to access food, fuel, medicines and other critical supplies and services. People trying to flee, and access assistance should be able to do so safely.”
