Two women and a child in a displacement shelter in Sudan. Displaced women and children are the most vulnerable populations. Credit: UNICEF/Ahmed Mohamdeen Elfatih
By Oritro Karim
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 5 2024 – As the Sudanese Civil War continues to ravage the people of Sudan, conditions for internally displaced persons grow more dire every day. The situation in Sudan is currently the biggest displacement crisis in the world. Famine, violence, and gender-based violence are rampant. Described as “an invisible crisis” by the United Nations (UN) new emergency relief chief, Tom Fletcher, many believe that the humanitarian response has been largely ineffective in tackling the urgent and growing scale of needs.
The latest figures from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimate that approximately 11.5 million people have fled their homes since the wake of the war. Roughly 8.5 million people have been dispersed throughout Sudan’s borders while 3 million have fled to neighbouring nations such as Chad, Egypt, and Ethiopia. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) mass displacement has given way to one of the world’s biggest educational crises. It is estimated that 90 percent of Sudan’s 19 million school-aged children lack access to any form of formal education.
Sudanese displacement camps have seen a steep rise of violence over the past few days. On December 1-2, intense gunfire and shelling was reported around the Zamzam camp, one of Sudan’s largest shelters, located south of El Fasher, North Darfur. According to humanitarian organizations, at least five people were killed and eighteen were injured. This led to the evacuation of a hospital within the camp and suspension of medical services.
In a report released by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan Clementine Nkweta-Salami condemned the attack and urged for stronger protections to be established for civilians.
“I am deeply concerned by reports of the indiscriminate shelling of Zamzam camp, health clinics, and shelters of displaced people. Their protection is paramount. Civilians and civilian infrastructure are protected under international humanitarian law and should never be a target,” said Nkweta-Salami.
The UN has described conditions in the Zamzam camp as being at a “breaking point.” Heightened violence has exacerbated already dire conditions for the nearly 500,000 displaced persons residing in this camp. Health clinics, residential areas, and the humanitarian response has been severely strained due to the sheer scale of suffering. According to a press release from the UN, famine has been persistent in the Zamzam camp since August 2024, making it the only location globally where famine has been declared this year.
The medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), has been on the frontlines assisting displaced persons facing severe injuries or war-related conditions. On December 1, MSF received eight injured people, including children as young as four years old. These patients faced conditions such as chest trauma and bone fractures.
MSF reports that thousands of children are currently being treated for malnutrition and starvation. A series of studies were conducted to assess the mortality rate of 400 households in the Zamzam camp. Out of 46,000 children, it is reported that approximately 30 percent are struggling with acute malnutrition, while 8 percent are facing severe malnutrition. Furthermore, 10 percent of children under five years old struggle with severe acute malnutrition, a life-threatening condition.
The World Food Programme has called for a cessation in violence to allow humanitarian aid to reach affected communities. “We’ve been pushing for months to get to these communities. We have the food. We have the trucks. We have the staff on board to ensure this aid gets there. Now, we need all warring parties and armed groups to allow this vital food and nutrition to arrive safely,” said Alex Marianelli, WFP’s Operations Deputy Country Director in Sudan.
Additionally, gender-based violence remains a pervasive issue plaguing displaced communities all across Sudan. According to statistics from the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), approximately 65 percent of all women and girls experience sexual, physical, and gender-based violence in their lifetime. Sudan also ranks as one of the nations with the highest number of reported cases of intimate partner violence.
“Every day countless South Sudanese women and girls endure unthinkable suffering due to gender-based violence and conflict-related sexual violence,” said South Sudanese Minister of Gender, Child and Social Welfare Aya Warille. “These acts are more than mere statistics. They are profound violations of human rights that fracture the very fabric of our society. They rob our mothers, sisters and daughters of their dignity and place an immense burden on our future. This is not just a women issue, it is a societal crisis that speaks to the core of our humanity.”
Sudanese civilians and humanitarian officials have described aid efforts as being inadequate, relative to the massive, nationwide scale of suffering. Twenty years ago, we had presidents and prime ministers engaged to stop atrocities in Darfur. There are today many times as many lives at stake – this is the world’s worst crisis — but we are met with deafening silence. We must wake up the world before famine engulfs a generation of children,” said Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) Secretary General Jan Egeland.
Despite many believing that Sudan has been largely “ignored” by the international community, the UN reiterates that Sudan is a pressing concern for them. “This crisis is not invisible to the UN, to our humanitarians on the front-line risking and losing their lives to help the Sudanese people,” said Fletcher.
Reasons for the limited humanitarian response can be attributed to widespread social insecurity that has been exacerbated by violence and an overall lack of funding. Mobility and aid deliveries have experienced increasingly common restrictions and blockages. Additionally, the UN’s goal of 2.7 billion USD for the humanitarian response in Sudan has only been 57 percent funded. This poses significant challenges in sustaining life-saving aid efforts in the face of a crisis that deepens in severity on a daily basis.
IPS UN Bureau Report
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