The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is expanding its humanitarian appeal for Sudan as more and more people flee the country's war and widespread hunger in search of safety in neighboring countries. UNHCR reports that more money is urgently needed to help and protect the swelling population of Sudanese refugees, and is revising its appeal to US$1.5 billion, up from the US$1.4 billion it requested in January.
Fourteen months into the war, thousands continue to leave Sudan every day, fleeing brutal violence and abuse, death, disrupted services, limited access to humanitarian aid, and looming famine in what many observers have called the world's largest humanitarian crisis. However, only 19 percent of the funding needed to respond to the refugee emergency has been received.
The revised and expanded appeal will help 3.3 million refugees and their host communities in neighboring countries by the end of the year. In addition to the Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Sudan, two new countries, Libya and Uganda, have been added to the regional refugee response.
Ewan Watson, UNHCR's Head of Global Communications, who has just returned from visits to Sudan's White Nile State and the refugee camps in South Sudan's Unity State, described the situation there as “incredibly difficult, confusing, dangerous, and an appalling tragedy for civilians both still in Sudan and those who have had to leave the country due to the violence.”
“It is one of the most neglected crises globally and for us, it is the most pressing displacement crisis in the world right now,” Watson told journalists on Tuesday in Geneva.
Since the conflict began in mid-April 2023, more than 10 million people have fled their homes in Sudan, with many displaced multiple times. Of these, nearly 8 million are displaced within Sudan, with 7.7 million newly internally displaced and 220,000 refugees who have self-located within the country, while more than 2.1 million people have crossed into neighboring countries.
Most Sudanese have sought refuge in the seven countries bordering the northeastern African nation. South Sudan has received the largest number of people from Sudan - more than 700,000 - many of them South Sudanese returning after many years. Chad has seen the largest influx of refugees in its history, with more than 600,000 people crossing the border.
Funds from the January appeal have been used to assist Sudanese refugees who have fled to the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Sudan. The UNHCR's revised appeal has been expanded to include two new countries, Libya and Uganda.
Since last year's power struggle between rival generals of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Response Forces (RSF) sparked this catastrophic conflict, UNHCR has registered 20,000 new arrivals from Sudan in Libya, mostly fleeing Darfur, with more than 95,000 people estimated to have sought refuge there.
“We understand that thousands more have arrived in Libya that are not registered and are in the East of the country. With more refugees continuing to arrive since the escalation of fighting in the Darfur region, local services available across the country are really overstretched,” Watson said.
“Refugee families are being forced to sleep in the open as there is a lack of shelter,” he said. “Medical facilities also cannot keep up with growing needs and this is putting children, in particular, at risk of malnutrition.”
Watson noted that Uganda, already the largest refugee-hosting country in Africa, is fast becoming home to a growing population of Sudanese refugees.
Since the outbreak of the war, he said more than 39,000 Sudanese refugees have fled to Uganda, “with 70 percent fleeing just this year. This is three times more than was initially expected or predicted.”
“Most of them are arriving from Khartoum and have university level education and are looking to rebuild their lives,” he said, noting that most are being hosted and receiving humanitarian aid, including food, shelter, and health care in the Kiryandongo refugee settlement in the west of the country.
“As more people arrive, these services continue to be stretched, while resources to expand assistance are lacking,” Watson said, stressing that only 19 percent of the money required to run its humanitarian operations has been received.
“This is abysmally insufficient to cover the most basic needs for people forced to flee. The cost of inaction is having grave consequences for refugees.”
The UNHCR official said heavy rains expected in some of the host countries risk complicating the delivery of humanitarian aid, particularly in border areas. He appealed to international donors to provide the resources needed to strengthen government-led efforts to deliver critical assistance to millions of vulnerable people.
Otherwise, he warned more and more refugees will be forced to seek help “further afield in countries such as Libya, which are extremely difficult for refugees.”
Alarming new food security projections confirm that Sudan is facing a hunger catastrophe on a scale not seen since the Darfur crisis earlier this century. Last week, the United Nations released disturbing new data showing that the rapid deterioration of food security in Sudan has left 755,000 people "in catastrophic conditions with a risk of famine in 14 areas".
In response to this latest food assessment by the Integrated Food Security Classification (IPC), the heads of three leading UN agencies warned that "Sudan is facing a devastating hunger catastrophe on a scale not seen since the Darfur crisis in the early 2000s."
According to the latest IPC analysis, a total of 25.6 million people are experiencing high levels of acute hunger (IPC Phase 3 or worse). This means that for half of Sudan's war-affected population, every day is a struggle to feed themselves and their families.
With 755,000 people in catastrophic conditions (IPC Phase 5) and 8.5 million in emergency levels of hunger (IPC Phase 4), immediate action is needed to save lives.
Meanwhile, fighting is spreading to other parts of the country, with enormous consequences for the civilian population. Clashes between warring parties have displaced an estimated 117,000 people in Sennar State in recent days.
In its latest update on the hostilities between the SAF and RSF in the southern town of Sinja, located in Sennar State, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that more than 60,000 people have fled Sinja for safety, most of them heading east towards Gedaref State.
“The fighting continues, and people are on the move as we speak so the situation is very volatile and these numbers could increase in the coming days,” Vanessa Huguenin, OCHA spokesperson told journalists in Geneva on Tuesday.
“We and our humanitarian partners are present in Gedaref and are preparing for the arrival of people that have been displaced by the clashes, with food and nutrition supplies […] We have a window of opportunity to act but time is running out and we need more funding and access,” she said.
There are also reports of insecurity in the towns of Abu Hujar and Ad Dali in Sennar State, in the southwest of the country.
On Wednesday, an OCHA team arrived in Gedaref and visited several sites where displaced families are seeking shelter following clashes in Sennar State.
The team reported that people continue to arrive in large numbers. Children and the elderly are among those arriving in very difficult conditions, as they have not been able to bring many supplies with them. OCHA is working with other UN agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to provide critical humanitarian assistance. The World Food Programme (WFP) has pre-positioned more than 2,200 metric tons of food to respond to the ongoing crisis.
The UN humanitarian office says it is deeply concerned that the widening conflict and increasing insecurity could cut off a key route for the transport of humanitarian aid from Port Sudan in the east.
“We reiterate that a famine is looming, and it is imperative to sustain the delivery of life-saving aid across conflict lines and across border,“ a UN spokesman said Wednesday, briefing reporters in New York.
The situation is no better in other parts of the country. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported that at least eight children were killed in a reported drone strike on a mosque in El Fasher in North Darfur on Monday. The mosque had provided food to vulnerable children and their families and was apparently not a safe place.
“The senseless killing of children in Sudan – and elsewhere - must end,” the UN spokesman said
As of June 2024, more than 10.3 million women, men and children have been internally displaced by conflict in the country, including those displaced before the start of the war, making Sudan the largest internal displacement crisis in the world.
Sudan may soon become the world's largest displacement crisis.
The total number of Sudanese refugees is estimated at more than 2.8 million, including those forced to flee before April 2023. In total, more than 13 million people have now been displaced by conflict in Sudan, making it one of the two largest displacement crises in the world, alongside the Syrian conflict.
The dire humanitarian situation in Sudan has barely received the international political and media attention it deserves, and funding to address needs in neighboring countries and throughout Sudan is woefully inadequate.
As of July 4, only 18 percent of the US$2.6 billion needed under the Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) to provide life-saving assistance to more than 18 million people inside Sudan has been received.
Some information for this report provided by VOA.
Further information
Full text: As fighting rages in Sudan, refugee aid efforts expand to two new countries, UNHCR briefing notes, released July 2, 2024
https://www.unhcr.org/news/briefing-notes/fighting-rages-sudan-refugee-aid-efforts-expand-two-new-countries