Edem Wosornu, director of operations and advocacy for the Humanitarian Affairs Office, OchaInformed journalists during her recent visit to Sudan and the neighboring Chad – a critical access point for help and a refuge for around 850,000 people who fled between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia.
The war broke out in April 2023 and created one of the world’s greatest humanitarian crises, with around 30 million people who need help.
Houses, hospitals and schools have been destroyed and the basic services have stopped. Malnutrition and food insecurity are increasing.
Auxiliary cars wait
Mrs. Wosornu expressed concern about the situation in El Fasher, which is besieged for 500 days, with fresh shelling that morning. The capital of North Darfur is also in the grip of deadly cholera that “does not arrange whether you are in uniform or a burger”.
She said about 70 trucks from the World Food Program (WFP), the UN -Kinderfonds (Unicef), and the World Health Organization (WHO) Waiting in Nyala, South Darfur, to enter the city.
In the meantime, two other cities – Kadugli in the state of South Kordofan and El Obeid in Noord -Kordofan – are also besieged.
“We have good news,” said Mrs. Worsonu, who announced that UNICEF trucks have provided help to hundreds of thousands of people in Kadugli in recent days.
Khartoem now ‘a ghost city’
The senior OCA officer reminded that Sudan was once the ‘grassefernet’ of the Horn of Africa, but last year the famine conditions were reported in the Zamzam camp in North Darfur.
The current lean season finds around 680,000 people nationwide in a state of catastrophic food insecurity.
Although fighting has been demolished in the capital, Khartoem, she said that the enormous scale and destruction is devastating, with “streets and buildings littered with explosive remains of war”. The once lively city is now “completely a ghost city” with a “tangible feeling of trauma everywhere”.
However, she also witnessed signs of hope. She saw “a city that tried to come back to life, people who wipe the streets, a population who is determined to come back to what they were ever. But of course it will take many, many, many years.”
In Chad, she thanked the authorities for their support, including ensuring that the Adre limit with Sudan remains open.
The war has made travel in Sudan extremely difficult, so humanitarian aid must go from Douala in Cameroon through the capital of Chad, N’Djamena, and on various cities before he arrived at Adre for access to Darfur – “a huge effort,” she said.
More financing and access to help
Mrs. Wosornu concluded by making four “key knocks” to the international community, including for sustainable improvements in aid access and more financing.
“What we need is 55 cents per person, per day. That’s it for Sudan,” she said.
More difficult to deliver were her last plea for the warring parties for a permanent peace and an end to the fighting.
“Our humanitarian partners also say that this should stop so that we can continue to provide help,” she said. “Because after the war and everything stopped, and when the weapons are silent, people still need recovery.”
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