Sudan relief operations are on the brink of collapse, UN agency warns

CAIRO (AP) – The U.N. migration agency warned on Tuesday that humanitarian efforts in Sudan’s war-torn North Darfur region might come to a complete halt unless immediate funding and safe delivery of relief supplies are ensured.

“Despite the rising need, humanitarian operations are now on the brink of collapse,” the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a statement. It added: “Warehouses are nearly empty, aid convoys face significant insecurity, and access restrictions continue to prevent the delivery of sufficient aid.”

The IOM said more funding is needed to ease the humanitarian impact of the war between the Sudanese army and its rival, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The agency warned of “an even greater catastrophe” if its appeal went unheeded.

“Our teams are responding, but insecurity and depleted supplies mean we are only reaching a fraction of those in need,” IOM Director General Amy Pope said in a statement.

The RSF’s recent capture of North Darfur’s capital, el-Fasher, left hundreds dead and forced tens of thousands of people to flee reported atrocities by the paramilitary force, according to aid groups and U.N. officials. The IOM said nearly 9O,000 people have left el-Fasher and surrounding villages, undertaking a perilous journey through unsafe routes where they have no access to food, water or medical assistance.

Tens of thousands have arrived at overcrowded displacement camps in Tawila, about 70 kilometers (43 miles) from el-Fasher. In the camps, the displaced find themselves in barren areas with few tents and insufficient food and medical supplies.

“We have been getting little food from community kitchens here; we only get lunch meals,” Sohaiba Omar, 20, told The Associated Press from a shelter in Diba Nayra camp in Tawila. “We also need a nearby source of water and toilets. Disposing of our wastes in the open can make us fall sick and catch diseases like cholera.”

Batoul Mohamed, a 25-year-old volunteer at the camp, said, “The displaced are too many. They are also hungry. It is very difficult to have people come up to us saying that they could not eat because there not was not enough food.”

Aid group Doctors Without Borders warned that malnutrition in displacement camps has reached “staggering” rates. Over 70% of children under the age of 5 who reached Tawila between the fall of el-Fasher at the end of October and Nov. 3, were acutely malnourished, and more than a third experienced severe acute malnutrition, the group said Tuesday.

“The true scale of the crisis is likely far worse than reported,” it said.

The violence has spread to other parts of Sudan including the regions of Western Darfur and Kordofan, forcing more people to flee. Nearly 39,000 people fled North Kordofan between Oct. 26 and Nov. 9, according to the IOM.

The war between the RSF and the military began in 2023, when tensions erupted between the two former allies that were meant to oversee a democratic transition after a 2019 uprising. The fighting has killed at least 40,000 people, according to the World Health Organization, and displaced 12 million. Aid groups say the true death toll could be many times higher.

Also on Tuesday, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty met with Sudan’s army chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan in Port Sudan on the Red Sea as global efforts to reach a ceasefire and avert a humanitarian disaster in Sudan gathered pace.

Abdelatty expressed Egypt’s unequivocal support for Sudan’s armed forces and condemned the atrocities in el-Fasher.

“Standing by Sudan is a matter of principle,” he told reporters in a news conference after the meeting, adding that Egypt supports all of Sudan’s “national state institutions including the armed forces”.

He stressed the need to commit to the peace plan announced in September by a quartet including the U.S., Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, according to a statement issued by Egypt’s Foreign Ministry. The plan envisages a three-month humanitarian truce, followed by a nine-month political process.

The RSF said last week it agreed to the quartet’s humanitarian truce. The army said it welcomes the proposal, but will only agree to it if the RSF withdraws from civilian areas and gives up its weapons.