UN says ‘Unimaginable trauma’ haunts displaced civilians, violence, famine threaten Sudanese

Anjali Sharma

GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, 8th June. UN humanitarians warned on Friday that horrific violence and the risk of famine continue to hit the people of Sudan, as they echoed condemnation by UN Secretary-General António Guterres of an attack on a village south of Khartoum 2 days ago that have left more than 100 dead.

“The Secretary-General strongly condemns the attack reportedly carried out on 5 June by the Rapid Support Forces in the Wad Al-Noura village, Jazira state, which is said to have killed over 100 people,” UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement overnight.

It underscored “the immense suffering of the Sudanese population as a result of the continued hostilities”.

“It is high time for all parties to silence their guns across Sudan and commit to a path towards sustainable peace for the Sudanese people.”

Mohamed Refaat, the UN migration agency chief of mission in Sudan highlighted “truly horrifying reports of violent attacks and casualties” in the village of Wad Al-Noura in Aj Jazirah state on Wednesday.

The unconfirmed video images showed dozens of bodies laid out for burial in the village after a reported assault by heavily armed RSF fighters, some 112 kilometres (70 miles) from the capital.

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said that at least 35 children were dead, drawing strong condemnation.

“This is yet another grim reminder of how the children of Sudan are paying the price for the brutal violence,” she said in a statement late Thursday.

“Over the past year, thousands of children have been killed and injured. Children have been recruited, abducted and subjected to rape and other forms of sexual violence. Over five million children have been forced from their homes.

Mr. Refaat said expressed his shock upon learning of the killings in Wad Al-Noura, maintaining that the RSF had “used weapons with wide-area effects, including artillery shells, during the attack”.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said “These killings add to my existing, serious concerns about the adherence to the principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution under international humanitarian law by those involved in the fighting,”.

“Those responsible for unlawful killings must be held accountable. How many more Sudanese civilians must die before the parties to the conflict stop the fighting?”

North Darfur’s capital El Fasher in Sudan’s west, some 800,000 civilians are still in danger, after intensified fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the rival RSF.

Mr. Refaat said the location remains “inaccessible” to the UN either cross-line or cross-border.

He called for all parties to facilitate unimpeded aid access to the area “through all available routes” and stressed that the prices of water and fuel there have “skyrocketed”, making essentials unaffordable.

Internal displacement in Sudan began the conflict on 15 April last year has almost reached the 10 million mark, IOM’s Mr. Refaat noted.

He stressed with food insecurity an increasing factor in people’s decision to flee. Some 18 million people in the country are acutely hungry while 3.6 million children are acutely malnourished.

Mr. Refaat said the internally displaced, over 2 million people have fled across Sudan’s borders into neighboring countries, mainly Chad, South Sudan and Egypt, “often arriving in extremely vulnerable conditions and highly traumatized”.

He warned of a threefold increase recorded by IOM last year in Sudanese “taking dangerous, irregular migration corridors into Libya, Tunisia, onward to Europe”.

He quoted “unconfirmed reports” of some 2,000 families currently “stranded in hard conditions, including migrants between the borders between Egypt, Libya and Sudan”.

Alpha Seydi Ba, the UNHCR regional spokesperson for West and Central Africa, spoke of the devastating situation in Chad, where over 600,000 Sudanese have arrived since the start of the crisis.

“You’ve seen people coming on a daily basis by dozens in a very, very bad shape, and most of them are women, children who have experienced an unimaginable, unimaginable trauma,” he said.

Chad hosted more than 400,000 Sudanese refugees before this crisis, Mr. Ba explained.

He expressed the UN agency’s appreciation that the authorities “have kept their borders open”.

On refugees’ basic needs such as shelter, food, access to education for children and psychological support has become increasingly challenging due to funding shortfalls.

UNHCR said that the response plan for five neighboring countries hosting those who have fled Sudan, for a total of $1.4 billion, is only nine per cent funded. The humanitarian response inside Sudan remains only 16 per cent funded.

WHO voiced alarm over the dire healthcare situation in the country, warning that it was “collapsing”.

The spokesperson Christian Lindmeier told reporters that some 65 per cent of the population lack access to care.

“Healthcare in Sudan typically relied heavily on Khartoum, where the health care system was decimated,” he explained.

“Only about 25 per cent of the medical supplies needed are available in the country. In hard-to-reach areas, only 20 to 30 per cent of health facilities remain functional, and even so, at a minimal level.”

He warned of a record number of measles cases in 2023 as vaccination rates declined due to the conflict.

“Unfortunately, we expect 2024 to be worse,” he added.

WHO said that the cholera, malaria and dengue are also on the rise and expressed concern over the lack of treatment for people suffering from chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, heart diseases and kidney failure.