'The Sudanese Besieged on All Sides - War, Widespread Abuses, Indignity, Hunger'

Abdulmonam Eassa / RFI

A soldier of the Sudanese Armed Forces (file photo).

15 April 2025

allAfrica.com

By Peter Kenny

Geneva — Two years of war in Sudan have created what is now the world’s worst humanitarian and displacement crisis, intensified by extreme cuts to international aid, says the UN Refugee Chief Filippo Grandi.

“Two years on, Sudan is a catastrophe the world cannot afford to ignore,” said Grandi in a statement read at a UN press conference.

The head of the International Organization for Migration (IOM),  Amy Pope, said that today, more than 30 million people—two-thirds of Sudan’s population—are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, including 16 million children.

“The war has pushed Sudan to the brink. Thousands of lives have been lost to violence, families torn apart, and the hopes and aspirations of millions shattered in the face of starvation, disease, and the complete collapse of the economy,” said Pope.

The UN says that more than 12 million people have been forced from their homes, making it the world’s largest displacement crisis.

Grandi said that in the past few days, there have been brutal attacks on vulnerable people in North Darfur, with aid workers among those killed being “flagrant violations of humanitarian law.”

He said that the Sudanese are besieged on all sides – war, widespread abuses, indignity, hunger, and other hardships.

“And they face indifference from the outside world, which for the past two years has shown scant interest in bringing peace to Sudan or relief to its neighbours.”

Grandi said he just returned from Chad, a haven for nearly a million Sudanese refugees fleeing this carnage, but that severe funding shortfalls mean the UN will struggle to alleviate the suffering.

“It's not just the Sudanese who have become invisible. The world has largely turned its back on the countries and communities that have taken in so many refugees.

288% increase in demand for lifesaving support following rape and sexual violence

He said Chad has scarce resources yet has allowed refugees to seek safety on its territory.

“A huge number -1.5 million – have fled to Egypt. Hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese, themselves once refugees, have returned to escape the violence in Sudan, only to find their homeland again on the brink of war,” said Grandi.

Chad and Egypt currently host a total of 1 million Sudanese refugees.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said this mass displacement is straining local resources and social services, while the cross-border movement of armed groups is fuelling regional instability.

At the same briefing, Anna Mutavati, UN Women regional director for East and Southern Africa speaking from Port Sudan, condemned an attack only four days earlier in Darfur, where 400 civilians lost their lives.

“The war’s toll is devastating: there has been a 288% increase in demand for lifesaving support following rape and sexual violence,” said Mutavati.

“Women’s bodies have become battlegrounds in this conflict, with sexual violence and rape being systematically used as a weapon of war.”

She lamented that the numbers don’t capture the pain and fear she has heard in the stories of women she had met in displacement camps and protection centres in Port Sudan.

“Every woman fled her home with nothing, escaping violence and personal tragedies. I have heard their accounts of horror, the sexual abuse they suffered, and the constant need to move from one place to another, with nowhere safe to go,” said Mutavati.