PORT SUDAN: The international chief of the medical charity Doctors Without Borders has said that the ongoing civil war in Sudan has provoked one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises in decades.
The war, which began in April 2023 has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and displaced over nine million people, the United Nations said.
According to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) the number of people forcibly displaced stood at a record 117.3 million as of the end of last year, saying that this figure could rise further without major international political changes.
Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that the conflicts that have driven displacement include the war in Sudan, which Filippo Grandi described as “one of the most catastrophic ones” despite garnering less attention that other crises.
It added that over 9 million people have been internally displaced and another 2 million have fled to neighboring countries including Egypt, South Sudan and Chad. Conflict has raged for more than a year between the regular army under army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
Christos Christou, international president of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), said on social media that Sudan is one of the worst crises the world has seen for decades… yet the humanitarian response is deeply insufficient. He said that there are extreme levels of suffering across Sudan, and the needs are increasing by the day.
Both parties have been accused of war crimes including deliberately targeting civilian population, indiscriminate shelling of residential areas and stopping humanitarian aid, despite warnings that millions are on the brink of hunger.
Rights groups and the United States have also alleged the paramilitaries of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity in the country.
