2023-06-14 18:27:08
Military planes bombarded a town in southern Sudan on Wednesday for the first time since hostilities began two months ago between the army and a powerful paramilitary force that plunged the country into a serious humanitarian crisis.
Humanitarian aid in Sudan: Ryad announces the holding of a conference
Read also: Sudanese belligerents agree to a new truce
For several weeks, Saudi Arabia and the United States mediated negotiations between the two sides in the Saudi city of Jeddah, with a view to obtaining a truce. But the numerous truces announced were almost never respected and humanitarian aid remained blocked or reached the civilians in very insufficient quantities.
Sudan Aid Conference
Twenty-five million of the 45 million inhabitants of Sudan, one of the poorest countries in the world, now depend on humanitarian aid to survive, according to the UN. On Friday, the head of the delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Sudan, Alfonso Verdu Perez, lamented that “only 20% of health facilities are still functioning in Khartoum”.
Entire neighborhoods are deprived of running water and the electricity only works for a few hours a week. “We have been suffering and still suffering from this war for two months”testifies Soha Abdelrahmane, a resident of Khartoum, adding that several towns in Darfur, such as El-Geneina and Nyala, are in “state of siege”.
The head of the UN mission in Sudan, Volker Perthes, said on Tuesday “particularly alarmed” by the situation in Darfur where the violence might constitute “crimes once morest humanity”. This region was devastated in the 2000s by a civil war that left around 300,000 dead and nearly 2.5 million displaced, according to the UN.
Saudi Arabia has announced that an international conference on aid to Sudan will be held on June 19.
Read also: UN envoy declared persona non grata in Sudan
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