Medical charity Doctors Without Borders decried Wednesday the collective “political failure” to end Sudan’s civil war and to also fund vital aid for millions hit by the devastation.
More than three years of war between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced millions and triggered what the United Nations has described as one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
And yet, “there seems to be really no will to end this war peacefully”, said Javid Abdelmoneim, international president of Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF.
Just back from a weeks-long trip to the war-ravaged Darfur region, he decried the total “impunity” there, slamming a vast “political failure, … not only to stop the war, but to protect civilians”.
He described how civilians have been enduring extreme violence, even as millions face acute food insecurity, rampant sexual violence and a total breakdown of the health system as diseases spread.
Deep cuts to humanitarian funding globally and swelling logistical challenges to deliver the aid, linked in part to the war in the Middle East, have also left many in Sudan with no assistance.
– Cholera looming –
It was shocking, Abdelmoneim said, that both inside the country and at a collective global scale, “the political will … isn’t there either to stop the war or fund humanitarian relief”.
MSF is not directly impacted by the global humanitarian cuts since it does not rely on state funding, but it is still feeling the impact, Abdelmoneim said.
“We work in an ecosystem, and when health actors are dropping left, right and centre, then that ecosystem impacts us,” he said.
He said MSF was doing its best to help “fill the gap left behind by governments” but the situation was getting worse.
Last month in central Darfur, at least 47 primary health centres lost their international funding, he said.
The impact is clear, he said, adding there was a “big measles outbreak” as well as cases of meningitis, diphtheria, neonatal tetanus.
“These are all vaccine-preventable diseases, and they’re killing children.”
And as the rainy season approaches, he said, “it will be a surprise if we do not see cholera again”.
“The underperformance of the humanitarian system” was particularly clear in the Darfur refugee town of Tawila, where many fled when RSF captured El-Fasher in October after besieging it for 18 months, Abdelmoneim said.
The numbers crowded together there have been estimated anywhere between 400,000 and one million, amid dire shortages of food and water.
People there “are hungry… and they are thirsty”, he said, pointing out that they receive one small cooked meal a day and complain that the daily replenishment of water “runs out in the camp within 30 minutes”.
Abdelmoneim also denounced the rampant attacks on healthcare.
Since the start of the war, the World Health Organization has recorded nearly 200 such attacks, resulting in around 1,700 deaths.
Abdelmoneim said many MSF staff had confided they were “scared to come to work”.
“Hospitals are a target.”
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