Sudan crisis: UN, aid agencies urge global action as situation ‘spirals out of control’

UN agencies and humanitarian organizations are urging global action as millions of people in Sudan run out of food and many die due to the lack of healthcare after four months of bloodletting.
The situation in Sudan, which could possibly amount to “crimes against humanity”, is rapidly “spiraling out of control” with widespread displacement and the looming threat of famine, UN agencies and NGOs warned on Tuesday (15 August). The signatories from 20 global organizations stressed that “more than six million Sudanese people are one step away from famine,” with the United Nations adding it was particularly worried about women and girls amid “shocking incidence of sexual violence, including rape.” More than 14 million children need humanitarian aid and over four million people have fled the fighting, either within the war-ravaged country or as refugees to neighboring states, according to the joint statement.
Fighting between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has devastated the capital Khartoum and sparked ethnically-driven attacks in western Sudan’s Darfur area, threatening to plunge the northeast African country into a protracted civil war and destabilize the wider region. In Darfur, the latest fighting has also morphed into ethnic violence, with the RSF and allied Arab militias targeting ‘African’ communities, UN officials say. Efforts led by the United States and Saudi Arabia to negotiate a ceasefire in the ongoing conflict have stalled, and humanitarian agencies have struggled to provide relief while also hospitals across the country experience partial or complete shutdown.