AMBASSADOR LINDA THOMAS-GREENFIELD: Good afternoon, everyone. We gather during the holy month of Ramadan, a period of reverence and renewal for Muslims everywhere. And this is a particularly painful Ramadan for Muslim people across the world. In Afghanistan. In Syria. In Xinjiang. Myanmar. Gaza. And - as we are here to talk about today - Sudan.
Today, instead of gathering for bountiful iftars, some 18 million Sudanese people face acute food insecurity. Children are starving, wasting, and dying. Far from their homes and their communities, millions of refugees are praying in over-crowded camps. Clean water is sparse; measles, cholera, and other preventable diseases have spread. And then there are still those in Sudan; people in Darfur who wake up not to the call of prayer, but to the sound of gunfire, of shelling, of cries for help.
A few weeks ago, the Council came together to adopt a resolution, calling for a Ramadan ceasefire. That resolution has thus far been ignored.
Nearly a year since this crisis began, the situation in Sudan remains catastrophic, and it is only getting worse. Right now, just five percent of the UN's humanitarian appeal for Sudan has been met. Already, the World Food Program has had to cut assistance to over seven million people in Chad and South Sudan. This includes 1.2 million refugees, people like those I met in Eastern Chad back in September, who struggled to find enough food even then.
More than just lacking funding, though, humanitarian workers are simply unable to deliver it to those in need. Since the start of this conflict, they have been on the ground, often putting their lives at risk, to save people in Sudan. And yet, combatants on both sides of the war have undermined them at every turn. That includes the Sudanese Armed Forces, which has impeded the major humanitarian aid crossing from Chad into Darfur.
This is literally a matter of life or death. At the Zamzam camp in North Darfur, a child dies every two hours. Experts warn that in the coming weeks and months, over 200,000 more children could starve to death.
And so, we once again call for the SAF to immediately and fully reopen all of its border crossings with Chad for humanitarian purposes, including the Adre border crossing. Should they not, the Security Council must take swift action to ensure lifesaving aid is delivered and distributed, including, if necessary, through a cross-border mechanism.
Finally, we must, and we have to urge the warring parties to stop the fighting and get Sudan on the path to peace. Because we cannot hope to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in and around Sudan if we do not address the root causes.
In all of this work, we are lucky to have the leadership of the U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan, Tom Perriello, who is here with me today. In his role, Special Envoy Perriello will advance our efforts to end the hostilities, secure unhindered humanitarian access, and support the Sudanese people in their quest for peace, justice, and democracy.
He brings to the role decades of experience working across the executive and the legislative branches of the U.S. government, multilateral institutions, and NGOs, as well as insight from the time as Special Envoy to the Great Lakes and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, when I served as the Assistant Secretary for Africa.
I am grateful that Special Envoy Perriello made time to join us here at the UN between visits to the region. And I look forward to sharing his thoughts with you. So, I'll turn the floor over to him, before we take a couple of questions. So, Tom, let me turn it over to you.
SPECIAL ENVOY TOM PERRIELLO: Thank you so much, Ambassador, for your leadership on Sudan and other issues around the world. One of the things that I've heard over and over again from Sudanese civilians is that they feel like they were suffering tremendous horrors inside, and those who've escaped feel like they're experiencing and again, from seeing that the world has fallen silent and not paid attention or recognized the horrible situation inside.
So, we welcome the Security Council resolution. The efforts of Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield to raise the urgency of this issue. And that I think is our number one issue - number one message today.
We are in a crisis. We are in a crisis that is already fatal for many of the most vulnerable and could get dramatically worse in the coming weeks. This is a time for peace. This is a time for coming together and getting the Sudanese people back on the path that they began in 2019 with such creative means and courage to believe that they could build that beautiful democratic future for the people of Sudan. That's the future they want and deserve.
And in all my meetings, it's been clear that the Sudanese people are very united and what they want, they want an end to this war. They want full cross-border and crossline access. They want to build the core institutions of a democratic Sudan. And we believe it's important for the Security Council, the UN, and for people around the world to understand that urgency and pay attention to a crisis in a country of 50 million people with more than 20 million already displaced from their homes.
And as we head into the rainy season, where conditions could get even worse, now is not the time to pause, now is not the time to escalate. It is the time for us to bring together those actors who can help pave that path to peace, to humanitarian protection and access. We appreciate the leadership of those here who are engaged with that and hope the world will pay more attention to this crisis and bring it to a close.
Thank you so much.
QUESTION: Thanks, Ambassador. Michelle Nichols from Reuters. Thank you so much for speaking with us. First of all, Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield, what action can the Council take to follow up on the resolution that you said has been ignored? And then last year, you know, we heard a lot about the horrific violence that was taking place, particularly in Darfur. You know, the experts' report said 10 to 15,000 dead in one city alone. What information can you share with us about what violence is happening there now and how the U.S. would describe that, because like you said, aid is not getting in, but the media is not there either. So, what can you tell us about how bad it is at the moment?
AMBASSADOR LINDA THOMAS-GREENFIELD: Thank you so much for that question, Michelle. And you traveled with me to that region last year in September. And part of the reason I took that trip is because the media was not there. And if the media is not there, that's the reason we're doing this today. The media needs to be there. We cannot parcel out our attention to crises around the world. We have to pay attention to all of them. And I encourage you all as members of the media to pay attention to what is happening in Sudan.
The situation is worse than it was last year. We have seen more people crossing into the border. We see a situation in the cross-border area from Chad that is verging on critical, possibly leading to famine. People are starving. And it is really important that we not forget them. They need as much attention as we're paying to crises everywhere else in the world.
But Tom, you've been out there more recently. And Tom is about to travel to Chad, but he may be able to share some more recent thoughts on what is happening on the ground.
SPECIAL ENVOY PERRIELLO: I'll just add - I'm going. And it's not just President Biden and Secretary Blinken that our seized with the urgency of this issue, but also our Congress and I'll be joining up with members of the Senate and the House in Chad to visit the camps and see firsthand the degree and acuteness of the suffering that we see. It's also important to remember that they're incredibly courageous, innovative Sudanese coming up with approaches like the emergency response rooms and other means to try to get aid desperately needed inside, and we want to be able to support and celebrate those who are finding a way through even under the worst possible circumstances.
But this is a situation where again, as I hear from many Sudanese, they don't see the coverage in the Western press. They don't see it in the African press or the Arab world press nearly enough. We have seen more of that coverage and interest in the last few weeks. We've seen more leadership from the A3 and from the Security Council, and I think this is the time building up to this tragic anniversary on April 15 for all of us to be elevating the attention paid to this and the pressure on the parties to help we reach a resolution.
One note from humanitarian leaders in the areas to say even if the war came to an end tomorrow, we would still not be able to prevent a famine that's coming. We would only be able to mitigate its acuteness and length. So that gives you a sense of how urgent the situation is. We must do both things. We must be pushing to reach a peace deal that returns the Sudanese people to the path that they've been so clear of wanting to be on. While also significantly increasing both the volume of humanitarian assistance and the ability to get it out to the places that need it most.
AMBASSADOR THOMAS-GREENFIELD: And you asked about the Council. Certainly, the Council is seized with this. You saw the resolution we passed a week and a half ago. We're looking at what will be needed to address the cross-border issues from Chad into Sudan because parties on both sides have blocked that and we're looking in the Council on possible ways that we can address that issue.
QUESTION: Thank you very much. Edith Lederer from the Associated Press. The rival generals were feuding already almost a year ago when the war started. And it's only gotten much, much worse over the past year. So, what actually can the international community do, and the United States do, to actually get the two leaders of the RSF and the Sudanese military to sit down together to actually try to end this conflict? And what specifically is the United States thinking about on that issue?
SPECIAL ENVOY PERRIELLO: So, we believe that much more is needed, with much more urgency. The United States has issued sanctions on bad actors on both sides showing that there needs to be accountability for those actions of atrocities. We've seen the issue of ethnic cleansing against the Masalit in an incident by the RSF. We also need to do much more to elevate the voice of the Sudanese people. And one of the things that has become very clear to me in this job is that the Sudanese people are extremely united in what they want for their future. While there may be divisions on Twitter or other places, when it comes to the core issues here of a desire for peace immediately, for full humanitarian access and for return to the constitutional transition that helped unite and inspire the Sudanese people and more back in 2019, and the issue of a unified professional military. These are issues of great consensus to the Sudanese people and issues that can help bring stability to the region at a time that there are so many other destabilizing factors.
So, I think in helping to elevate the voices and the unity of the Sudanese people, I think that can also help pave and shine a light on the path forward, in addition to raising the consequences for those actors who undermine the peace efforts. We have of course, been very supportive of the Jeddah process, and many other processes to push for peace but we do hope we will be seeing inclusive talks with a larger number of key actors reconvened in Jeddah soon.
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We also appreciate the efforts of the French government to host a donor conference on April 15, to bring more attention particularly to the humanitarian needs. So, we're seeing leadership from the AU, from EGAD, and other African leaders in the neighborhood. And as soon as we can bring those efforts together, I think we can create something that really backs the Sudanese people and their aspirations for immediate peace, and again, a return to the path we've seen in previous years.
QUESTION: Hi, Gabriel Elizondo from Al Jazeera English. Thank you. Two questions, if I may real quick. Do you have any indications that the RSF and SAF will be gone to Jeddah for those talks? And what would be your message to them on how important those talks would be from your standpoint? And the second question is on Gaza if I may. It was just a couple of days ago the Council voted, Ms. Ambassador, for the ceasefire - demanding an immediate ceasefire. Do you think Israel has lived up to its end of the bargain?
SPECIAL ENVOY PERRIELLO: We do think it's very important for both of the fighting forces to be part of the Jeddah conversations. They've given some indications of that, but those are ongoing conversations. But more importantly, I think it's just important for those actors and others to understand that the world is watching, the Sudanese people are watching, and they are seeing who is a force for peace and for the Sudanese people and who's not. And I think that's something where there will be very long memories. So now is a time I think, where we're with people at their most desperate that they will appreciate the kind of leadership and statesmanship of those fighting forces leadership who are willing to come to the table and be a force for peace.
AMBASSADOR THOMAS-GREENFIELD: Thank you for that question. Look, the Council spoke with one voice on Monday, calling for a ceasefire, calling for the release of hostages, and calling for ramped up humanitarian assistance to be provided to the Palestinian people. Resolutions are important in the sense that they give the sense of the Council to the parties that are engaged, and our hope is that the parties who are engaged live up to the requirements of the Council.
But let me just say, and I've said this many times, that a ceasefire will happen based on the work of people on the ground negotiating with the warring parties. That's what's happening in the case of Sudan, getting the two sides to come to an agreement.
And that we're working on every single day to ensure that there is peace, that there is lasting peace, and that hostages are brought home to their families, suffering people - their suffering is alleviated. And we will continue to push for that both in the Council, but also in our work on the ground.
Thank you all.
