“The The scale of the emergency is terrifying.as well as insufficient action to prevent conflict,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO).
Speaking to reporters from the Red Sea city of Port Sudan, Dr Tedros said the conflict had so far killed more than 20,000 people – although the figure could be higher – and sparked the world’s largest internal displacement crisis, leaving more than 10 million people internally displaced and forcing another two million to flee to neighbouring countries.
‘Crisis falls on deaf ears’
Since April 2023, Sudan has been embroiled in a deadly conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
After 500 days of fighting, in addition to the rising death toll and soaring number of internally displaced people, catastrophic seasonal flooding has further damaged critical infrastructure, disease outbreaks such as cholera and malaria are on the rise, many cases of conflict-related sexual violence Famine has been reported and is occurring in some areas of the country.
At the end of his two-day visit, Dr. Tedros stated, “25.6 million people – more than half of Sudan’s population – are expected to face severe food insecurity.” He also noted that 70 to 80 percent of the country’s health facilities are not operating at full capacity.
Despite these worrying statistics and the WHO sounding the alarm since the conflict began while working with partners to address some of the challenges, Dr Tedros said: “The international community seems to have forgotten Sudan and is paying little attention to the conflict that is tearing the country apart, with consequences for the region.”
‘The best medicine is peace’
“The conflict has left some 25 million people…in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. Of these, 14.7 million need urgent support for a range of life-saving assistance, for which the humanitarian sector has requested $2.7 billion, but has received less than half of that funding.”
He called for a series of actions that could save millions of lives: protecting health facilities, health workers and patients – health should not be targeted; maintaining access to supplies and aid; expanding disease surveillance and vaccination coverage; and “significantly increasing international financial resources to scale up the response”.
“We call on the world to wake up and help Sudan escape the nightmare it is going through,” the head of the UN health agency said, adding that an immediate ceasefire was needed to move towards a lasting political solution.
“The best medicine is peace,” he added.
