The top UN official in Sudan has called for more assistance to the population as the brutal war between rival militaries approaches the two-year mark amid rising needs, increased risk of wider famine and a shortfall in humanitarian funding.
"We appeal to the international community not to forget Sudan," Clementine Nkweta-Salami, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for the country, said recently in an exclusive interview with UN News.
The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and former ally the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been battling since 15 April 2023. The war has decimated Sudan and sparked the world's worst displacement crisis. Some 12 million people have been forced to flee their homes for other areas in the country, or across the border.
This year, humanitarians are seeking $4.2 billion to support a staggering 30 million people in Sudan.
Ms. Nkweta-Salami underscored the commitment of the UN and partners to continue assisting war-weary civilians trapped in a dangerous and deadly environment.
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Clementine Nkweta-Salami: The humanitarian situation is catastrophic; I think we've used that adjective many times now. We are almost two years into the conflict, and we would have hoped to have been able to ensure that we could provide humanitarian assistance comprehensively to those in need.
We're still struggling. We don't have access to all the hotspot areas. We are trying our best to make sure that the resources we have can be moved out as quickly as possible using all the modalities that we have available to us.
But the displacement is significant, the needs are enormous, we've already had famine identified in some parts of the country, and we're working against the clock to try and prevent it spreading.
So, all in all, I would say that we still need to make a mammoth effort. We still need support from the international community in terms of resources, and we still need greater facilitation by all the armed groups engaged in this conflict.
UN News: Your focus is on humanitarian operations and getting aid to people, but is there anything you can tell us about the current phase of the fighting and political developments?
Clementine Nkweta-Salami: Humanitarian assistance needs to continue in the absence of a political solution to the conflict, in the absence of a ceasefire. We continue to work with the international community - Member States who are engaged in the political discussions and negotiations - to try and use the discussions to facilitate our work through humanitarian pauses and trying to get the armed groups to agree to routes that we could use which would not be subject to attacks, shelling or bombardment.
In the absence of a political solution, we will continue to forge ahead with the humanitarian response.
The needs of the people are significant. They need health services. They need access to water. They need electricity. But more importantly, they need access to food, medicines, and shelter. And one of the areas that we believe is critical, and perhaps is not readily as visible, is of course protection.
We have high numbers of gender-based violence. We have children in need of protection, children out of school, and we continue to insist in line with international humanitarian law and human rights law that the protection of civilians be upheld as this conflict continues.
And this is something we haven't seen, and we continue to push. Civilians are really bearing the brunt of this conflict, and all armed actors need to abide by international humanitarian law and ensure the protection of civilians: those in the cities and those who want to flee.
UN News: This is a good time to remind our audience about how the UN is providing humanitarian assistance to the Sudanese people.
Clementine Nkweta-Salami: We're trying to bring in assistance across lines - that is throughout the territory, arriving at Port Sudan and trying to push it to those areas where there is the greatest need. We're also trying to use the cross-border entry points as well.
We need to use as many of these options [as possible], keep them open, ensure that we have agreements with all the armed groups so that we can use them to bring assistance at scale and as quickly as possible to the highly impacted areas.
We have convoys of food. We also have medicines. We have nutrition supplies. We have supplies to address some of the endemic issues. We've had cholera outbreaks. We need to ensure that populations have clean and safe drinking water.
I should also underline that it's not the UN alone. The UN works with international NGOs, many of whom are able to work in parts of the country where we have no access, where we have no permission to establish a presence, and implement some of our activities.
We also have a large national NGO network - and some of these are female-headed NGOs. They are really at the frontlines, and we are channelling assistance to them, either cash, money or in-kind.
UN News: Famine conditions have been confirmed in some areas in Sudan, particularly the Zamzam camp in North Darfur. You mentioned that there's also the chance of it spreading to other parts of the country. How worrying is this?
Clementine Nkweta-Salami: Very worrying. If you allow me to just perhaps turn to the situation in Darfur. El Fasher remains under siege, with civilian populations trapped for many months, and they face daily shelling, displacement and rapidly deteriorating humanitarian conditions.
Many of the populations have wanted to leave. They've been prevented from leaving. Many of them have moved many times, and the situation is very dire.
We are very, very concerned, and I strongly condemn the intensifying deliberate attacks on civilians - particularly those in North Darfur but other parts of Darfur as well, and more recently, the airstrike on the market where we registered a significant loss of life.
I've mentioned international humanitarian law before. I think particularly in the Darfurs the protection of civilians is key, and we remind the parties as often as necessary to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian harm, to provide safe and hindered passage for civilians seeking to flee areas of active conflict.
Now, coming to the actual levels of food insecurity, let me just say that the situation at the Zamzam camp is catastrophic: severe shortages of food, water and medical supplies; the prices of basic goods have skyrocketed, making essential items unaffordable for most families, and Zamzam is a site in which famine conditions were identified last August and re-confirmed in December.
We also had areas in Khartoum at risk of famine, and also in the Kordofans and in the Blue Nile state as well.
UN News: You mentioned attacks, and humanitarians are also under fire. Can you talk about how the insecurity and the fighting affect aid delivery?
Clementine Nkweta-Salami: We have lost an unacceptable number of humanitarian actors during this conflict, and humanitarian actors shouldn't lose their lives trying to provide support to those in need.
There is conflict in various parts of the country. Khartoum previously was a hot spot, but the Darfurs continue to be a hot spot, more significantly around the border area with Chad, El Fasher and of course Zamzam. We also have hot spots in Nyala and now very recently in the Kordofans where we have seen an uptick in fighting, and also the Blue Nile.
The security situation is impacting our work negatively. But even where there is conflict, humanitarian workers are willing - and do have means and methods of being able to access these locations.
UN News: You've outlined the challenges, but also the work that the UN and partners are doing to bring aid to people in Sudan. This is taking place against the backdrop of an immense shortfall in funding for humanitarian operations worldwide this year.
Clementine Nkweta-Salami: Indeed, we are concerned that we will not be able to obtain a level of funding for this crisis that would allow us to address the urgent needs of the population.
We have been informed by some of our donors that there will be reductions in the resources that they will make available to us during the course of this year.
I think it's important to know that since this crisis began, the humanitarian needs have only grown. We started 2024 with about 24 million people. We ended with about 30 million people.
[Looking at] our Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan , the figures seem to be quite high but when you break them down it's about 50 cents per person per day.
People are in a dire situation and we appeal to the international community not to forget Sudan, not to forget the men and the women and children of Sudan who find themselves in this very difficult situation at this moment in time.
