The United Nations Thursday admitted to having difficulty in reaching 18 million persons in need in Sudan, in its bid to fend off a humanitarian disaster in the troubled North African country.
Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, said, “We need to reach 18 million people and we will not give up on that target, but we need more international support, better access to the people who need us and safety for our operations.”
UN says red tape has been impeding the flow of humanitarian relief, and only one-third of a $2.6 billion plea to the international community for aid to the Sudanese people had been funded. Another challenge has been attacks on aid workers, as the UN chief revealed 19 relief workers had died and 29 had been injured, which he deemed unacceptable and illegal.
“We’re not at this point able to have an operation that is commensurate to the scale (of needs),” she said.
In the middle of April, fighting broke out between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), causing a severe humanitarian catastrophe and bringing the nation dangerously close to civil war.
Due to the war, more than 4.2 million people have left their homes, and approximately 1.2 million of them have entered neighbouring countries, placing a tremendous strain on Sudan’s limited resources.
“We also need to see an end to interference from the conflict parties in our operations, including forced checks of humanitarian trucks and mandatory military presence during the loading process in Port Sudan and Jazeera,” she said.
“I hope that we will see swift action to reduce the bureaucratic obstacles, including delays in visa approvals for staff as promised by Sudanese authorities in a donor meeting yesterday.”
The violence might intensify, according to the United Nations, if it moves to other regions, such as central Jazeera state, which she referred to as “Sudan’s breadbasket,” where fighting could impede food supply. “Food security will suffer greatly as a result of this.”