SUDAN: Nine months into a war that has generated a serious humanitarian catastrophe, relief organizations are considering bringing aid to Sudan via a new route from South Sudan as they find it difficult to reach much of the nation, according to a top UN official.
The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the army are at war, and as a result, about half of Sudan’s 49 million people need humanitarian assistance. Sudan now has the largest worldwide displacement problem with over 7.5 million people having fled their homes, and hunger is on the rise.
While international organizations and NGOs have long lamented the bureaucratic barriers to entering the army-controlled hub of Port Sudan and obtaining travel permits for entry to other parts of the country, aid shipments have been taken and humanitarian workers attacked.
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) regional emergencies director, Rick Brennan, stated, “It’s a very, very hard operating environment.”
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After the RSF took it from the army last month, humanitarian organizations were unable to access Wad Madani, a former center of assistance in the significant El Gezira agricultural region southeast of Khartoum.
New displacement has resulted from the RSF’s push into El Gezira state and the combat that recently broke out in South Kordofan between the army, the RSF.
