March 21, 2024 (EIRNS)—On March 20 the UN Security Council held a briefing on the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Sudan, as the year-long internal conflict continues.
“By all measures—the sheer scale of humanitarian needs, the numbers of people displaced and facing hunger—Sudan is one of the worst humanitarian disasters in recent memory,” Edem Wosornu, director of operations at the UN Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), said on behalf of Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths, who heads UNOCHA. “Simply put, we are failing the people of Sudan. I regret to report that there has not been major progress on the ground,” she said.
The statistics reveal catastrophe. According to the UN: More than 8 million Sudanese are displaced both within and outside Sudan; more than 18 million are facing acute food insecurity—a record during harvest season, with an increase of 10 million more than this time last year; and 730,000 Sudanese children are thought to suffer from severe malnutrition.