NEW YORK CITY: Sudan is enduring one of the world’s biggest humanitarian crises, with 30 million people requiring emergency aid and more than 4 million displaced internally or as refugees.
The figures were given by Edem Wosornu, director of operations and advocacy at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, who recently returned to New York following her third visit to Sudan since the civil war in the country erupted more than two years ago. She also visited neighboring Chad, which is hosting hundreds of thousands of refugees from Sudan.
She detailed the devastating effects of the ongoing violence and the unprecedented hunger crisis that are ravaging the country. Key cities including Khartoum, El-Fasher and El-Geneina have suffered extensive damage amid the persistent fighting between rival military factions that has displaced millions and shattered basic infrastructure.
“Sudan, once known as the breadbasket of the Horn of Africa, is now facing a hunger crisis unprecedented in scale and severity,” Wosornu said, citing recent World Food Programme reports that estimated more than 638,000 people were living with the highest level of food insecurity, phase 5 on the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, which is characterized by famine-like conditions.
