The UN’s chief humanitarian official says Sudan is in a “beyond imagination” situation

LONDON: Martin Griffiths, the UN’s undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, says that Sudan is facing a humanitarian crisis “beyond imagination.” According to him, 750,000 people are in immediate danger of dying of hunger, and things are only going to get worse.

In an interview with The Guardian, Griffiths compared the intense media coverage and political focus on Gaza to the unfolding and mostly ignored tragedy in Sudan.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification released data on Tuesday that shows that over the next six months, 495,000 Palestinians in Gaza will be living in terrible conditions due to an “extreme lack of food, starvation, and exhaustion of coping capacities.”

In Sudan, on the other hand, about 755,262 people are in the same “phase 5” emergency conditions, and another 8.5 million are in “phase 4” emergency conditions, which include severe malnutrition, high disease rates, and a quickly rising risk of death from hunger.

“These numbers are crazy.” “I can’t even imagine it,” Griffiths said. “I think it’s a very important moment in history.”

Griffiths agreed with US officials that the situation in Sudan could get worse than the historic famine in Ethiopia, in which 1 million people died between 1983 and 1985, if individuals and organisations don’t get better access to humanitarian aid and more money from around the world.

“Sudan is just as horrifying and could be even worse in terms of tragedy.” He said, “It’s not going in the right direction, and it’s not getting as much international attention as it should.”

“The Ethiopian famine got a lot of attention around the world, and people were very generous.” Sudan, on the other hand, makes it challenging to get the story out, in part because reporters don’t have visas to get there.

The end of last year saw the release of a plan that called for giving $2.7 billion to help people in need in 2024. As of this week, however, only 17% of the funds needed had been raised, which is about the same rate of reaction seen around the world for humanitarian appeals.

“Unfortunately, it doesn’t happen that often these days,” he said. “Part of the reason is that the needs have grown but the money hasn’t.”

Sudanese troops are blocking aid from Chad at the Adre crossing, posing a significant issue in the Darfur region of western Sudan. Griffiths said that diplomacy efforts are still going on to break the blockade. Enforcing inspection rules to ensure the absence of weapons in the food aid is one way to achieve this. However, he cautioned that time is running out to prevent the worst-case scenarios.

“I’m afraid we won’t be able to get the seeds in time for planting,” he said.

Griffiths saw in Gaza that the number of Palestinians in danger of a terrible famine had cut in half since March, when more than a million people were in danger. According to him, the change was caused by the large amount of humanitarian aid in March and April. This showed that “aid works” and can quickly save people from famine, disease, and starvation.

However, Israel’s attack on Rafah forced more than a million people to relocate to central Gaza, shut down the main aid route, and exacerbated gang violence and security, which are now the main issues that make it difficult to get food to those in need.

Griffiths said, “We have now gone down to almost nothing.”

Even though Griffiths agreed that there was crime and looting by gangs in Gaza, he argued that Israel, as the occupying power, was still responsible for making sure that humanitarian aid deliveries were safe.

Griffiths said, “It’s not fair to say that the Israelis aren’t the problem because they are required by international law to protect humanitarian aid.” “They play a crucial role in ensuring the safety of humanitarian deliveries.”