African Union: War in Sudan world’s “worst humanitarian crisis”
African Union officials on February 11th said that Sudan’s civil war is the “worst humanitarian crisis in the world” and said that it was leaving hundreds of thousands of children in a malnourished state, according to The New Arab and agencies.
Since April 2023, the Sudanese army has been at war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has caused some 12 million people to be displaced, the AU and the International Rescue Committee have said.
Sudan’s army controls the east and north of Sudan, while the RSF holds most of the stricken Darfur region, where the United Nations on February 10th accused it of obstructing aid.
“This is the worst humanitarian crisis in the world,” chairman of an AU panel on Sudan, Mohamed Ibn Chambas, said on February 11th on X.
“Children and women are continually abused, and the elderly and sick lack medical assistance,” he added. The war “has hampered access to humanitarian relief, led to shortage of food and aggravated hunger.”
“We witness reports of grave violations, including attacks on schools and hospitals, forced recruitment of child soldiers, and the denial of humanitarian access,” Wilson Almeida Adao, senior AU official for child welfare, said in a separate X post. He went on to warn that hospital admissions for malnutrition rose by 44% in 2024, with more than 431,000 children being admitted.
The AU believes that “only inter-Sudanese political dialogue, not the military option, can end this war,” according to Chambas.
The warning comes after a similar statement from the the United Nations.
In a report published by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), officials said “Sudan is facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises due to the scale of escalating needs, the number of people displaced, the rising malnutrition rates and food insecurity.”
According to the report, an estimated 30.4 million people are in need of assistance this year.
The New Arab and agencies, OCHA
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