Aid agencies call for ‘immediate action’ in Sudan crisis

Caritas Internationalis, the World Council of Churches and Jesuit Refugee Service called for the UN to take urgent humanitarian action in Sudan.

In a message to the 56th session of the UN Human Rights Council, which convened in Geneva on 18 June, they reiterated their “appeal to all parties to agree on an immediate and durable ceasefire and to engage in meaningful dialogue to establish lasting peace and work towards a sustainable solution to address the underlying causes of the conflict”.

They deplored repeated violence against the civilian population after more than a year of war between Sudan’s military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Services (RSF), warning that women and children continue to be the worst affected by the conflict, with sexual-based violence dramatically on the rise.

The displacement of around nine million people “has reached untenable levels and without an immediate injection of funds, the capacity of neighbouring countries to respond will soon reach a breaking point”. They called for immediate action “to grant unimpeded access to the Sudanese population to provide critical relief items, healthcare and medicines, and urgently address the escalating food crisis to prevent further hunger-related mortality.”

Patients and staff at the only functioning hospital left in Al-Fashir, the capital city of North Darfur in western Sudan, have been killed and wounded in recent weeks by RSF rebels clashing with the Sudanese armed forces.

At least 85 people have died since 10 May, according to medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières, which has suspended its work at the hospital. RSF also attacked the nearby Abu Shouk camp for internally displaced people.

On 20 June, the UN Security Council demanded an end to the siege of Al-Fashir, calling for “an immediate halt to the fighting” and “withdrawal of all fighters that threaten the safety and security of civilians”.

Al-Fashir is the last of the five state capitals in the Darfur region not controlled by the RSF.

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