UN officials urge increased humanitarian aid for children in Sudan

Senior United Nations (UN) officials have recommended additional financing and reduced red tape to help Sudan’s estimated 14 million children.

Ted Chaiban of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Edem Wosornu of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) addressed journalists on their recent mission to the country.

The conflict between the Sudanese Army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has reached 100 days. In total, 24 million individuals in the country require assistance.

Chaiban, UNICEF’s deputy executive director for Humanitarian Action and Supply Operations, expressed optimism that the ongoing talks in Saudi Arabia will result in a cease-fire.

He said the conflict is threatening the lives and future of children and young people, who make up over 70 percent of Sudan’s population.

Chaiban said nearly 14 million children desperately need humanitarian relief, a number that is equivalent to all the boys and girls in Colombia, France, Germany or Thailand. Some 1.7 million people have been driven from their homes, adding to the nearly 2 million who were already uprooted before the crisis.

In addition, 3 million Sudanese children under the age of five are malnourished, with 700,000 at danger of severe acute malnutrition and death. 1.7 million children may be denied essential immunizations, increasing the danger of disease outbreaks.

Many people have gone to Port Sudan, the Red Sea city where the UN set up a base shortly after the conflict began.

According to Wosornu, director of OCHA’s Operations and Advocacy Division, the migrants are being housed by relatives and friends who are struggling to fulfill their own requirements as rents spike and civil servants go unpaid.

Humanitarian assistance reached at least 2.5 million people between April and June. But the target is 18 million, underscoring the need for more financial support and less red tape.