Sudanese are dying due to a lack of access to basic health services, and there is a risk of famine in some areas, according to World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus during a briefing in Geneva on Wednesday.
"There is a war going on in Sudan that the world has either forgotten or ignored," Ghebreyesus stated. He emphasized that the country is engulfed in "the world's biggest humanitarian crisis." Over 70 percent of hospitals in conflict-affected states are not functioning. "People are dying from lack of access to basic health services and medicines, while there is a very real risk of mass starvation in some areas," he added.
Ghebreyesus called for the "rapid restoration of access to telecommunications" throughout Sudan, stressing that the disruption of communications is affecting the disease surveillance system.
The situation in Sudan escalated in April 2023 due to disagreements between Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, chairman of the country's Sovereign Council and army commander, and Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, head of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The main controversies between the two are related to the formation of unified armed forces and the role of commander-in-chief. On April 15 of the previous year, clashes broke out between the RSF and the army in Merowe and Khartoum, quickly spreading to other parts of Sudan. The conflict has resulted in thousands of deaths and tens of thousands of injuries. The warring parties held a series of consultations in Jeddah in 2023.
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Photo: Christopher Michel/Creative Commons 2.0
Based on materials from TASS