UN Warns 'Gravity' Of Sudan Crisis Not Understood


(MENAFN- The Peninsula) AFP

Geneva: The international community does not grasp the seriousness of the crisis ravaging Sudan after more than a year and a half of civil war, a high-level UN official warned on Monday.

The diplomatic efforts "are not commensurate with the needs", said Mamadou Dian Balde, who is coordinating the United Nations refugee agency's response to the Sudan crisis.

"I don't think the world realises the gravity of the Sudanese crisis", nor its impact, Balde told AFP in an interview at UNHCR's Geneva headquarters.

As the year draws to a close, the UNHCR and its partners have received just 30 percent of the $1.5 billion they had requested for a regional plan to support millions of Sudanese refugees in 2024, he said.

And yet, "the needs are enormous".

The war between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the regular army, which erupted in mid-April 2023, has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people.

The conflict has also pushed some 12 million people to flee their homes, causing what the UN has described as one of the worst humanitarian disasters in recent memory.

In 20 months of conflict, 3.2 million people have already fled Sudan, while more than 8.6 million have been displaced inside the war-torn country.

There are also more than 264,000 refugees from other countries who have been displaced by the conflict but remain inside Sudan, UNHCR said.

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The Peninsula

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