The Sudanese states of Darfur, Kordofan, Khartoum and Al Jazeera are virtually cut off from humanitarian and medical assistance due to ongoing fighting. Sudan: 800 thousand people in El Fasher cut off from humanitarian and medical assistance, WHO warns Peace and security
The threat of mass famine remains in Sudan, where 800 thousand people in the capital of North Darfur, El Fasher, are left without sufficient food, water and medical care due to fighting. This was announced on Tuesday from the World Health Organization (WHO).
WHO representative in Sudan Shibli Sahbani said heavy fighting had made access to El Fasher impossible. Meanwhile, the parties to the conflict continue to negotiate in Geneva.
Protection of civilians
“States of Darfur, Kordofan, Khartoum and Al Jazeera are virtually cut off from humanitarian and medical assistance due to ongoing fighting,” a WHO spokesman told reporters in Geneva. He called on the warring parties to ensure the protection of civilians, humanitarian organizations and public infrastructure, including hospitals, and to immediately allow access “so that a health disaster can be averted.”
Existing stocks of medicines have been transferred to several hospitals in El Fasher, but the needs are much higher, the WHO representative stressed. He said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) continues to negotiate with the parties to allow the movement of aid trucks where possible.
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Sahbani added that Sudanese refugees in neighboring Chad told him during his visit that “the main reason they left Sudan now was hunger.” He reported the words of a woman who fled Darfur that all food and food sources were captured by the militants, and she had to walk for three days with her children to find safety – without food the entire way.
The WHO spokesman also warned that humanitarian operations in Sudan are funded at only 26 percent of what is needed, and the situation there is “one of the worst in the world.”
Negotiations in Geneva
Humanitarian access and the protection of civilians became the main topics of negotiations under the auspices of the UN between representatives of the warring parties – the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Reaction Force. The process began in Geneva last week under the leadership of the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy for Sudan, Ramtan Lamamra. . Lamamra and his team met several times with each delegation separately over the weekend, she said.