What Sudan Needs: An Urgent Humanitarian Response, Say UN and Global Leaders

As fighting in Sudan is intensifying, with an increasingly dire hunger crisis, UN agencies and Member States called on Wednesday for urgent action to protect civilians at the UN General Assembly in New York. The present war has caused a catastrophic humanitarian situation, where millions are suffering from acute food insecurity and displacement.

Meanwhile, Joyce Msuya, the Acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, called upon the member states to use their influence in bringing the violations of international humanitarian law and human rights abuses in Sudan to an end. She called for continued support for humanitarian efforts during this period and pressed for urgent delivery of aid through all avenues: cross-border, cross-line.

We need a concerted diplomatic push for a step change in humanitarian access, for safe, streamlined, and swift delivery of the aid, for facilitation of life-saving work by humanitarian organizations on the ground,” Msuya said.

A high-level Ministerial meeting was held on 25 September, organized by Saudi Arabia, the United States, the European Union, and the United Nations, amidst efforts to boost assistance. It aimed at further improving the humanitarian response to the crisis in Sudan, with half its population in need of assistance, over 10 million displaced.

US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield called on both the warring parties to allow humanitarian pauses in El Fasher, Khartoum, and other vulnerable areas. She announced an additional $424 million contribution of the US to emergency humanitarian assistance to raise the US’s contribution since the outbreak of the conflict to $2 billion.

Food insecurity has hit Sudan, leaving almost 26 million people suffering from acute food insecurity, while famine conditions have been confirmed in northern Darfur. There has been a severe disruption of essential services, and there are widespread reports of sexual violence and violations of human rights linked to the conflict.

Minata Samate Cessouma, a senior official of the African Union, urged the warring parties, “there can be no winners in this war.” She underlined that there must be a peaceful resolution and collective humanitarian support to solve the mounting crisis.

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Citing “The Cost of Inaction: Urgent and Collective Support to Scale Up the Humanitarian Response in Sudan and the Region,” the event drove the point that failure to act quickly has dire consequences, as millions of lives will be lost.

Keywords: Sudan crisis, humanitarian aid, UN General Assembly, Joyce Msuya, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, African Union, food insecurity, Sudan conflict, humanitarian response, Sudan displacement.