I have spent the past week traveling across Sudan, talking to communities, leaders, humanitarian partners and our UN family.
The message to the international community from those at the heart of this crisis is unequivocal: We are not invisible.
Sudan is in the grips of an epic polycrisis. Nearly 20 months of war have turned it into the fastest-growing displacement crisis, with an average of a staggering 20,000 people forced to move every day.
Sudan has also become the worst hunger crisis in the world, with three quarters of a million people one step away from famine and 26 million people - more than half the country's population - suffering from hunger.
Sexual violence is rampant. I heard stories of rape, sexual slavery and horrific violence against women and girls.
Childhood malnutrition rates are high. And cases of cholera, dengue and malaria are on the rise.
The numbers are unlike anything we've seen in recent years, and yet the world is not responding with the solidarity and support that is needed.
Today in El Geneina, Darfur - and yesterday across the border in Adre, Chad - displaced people told me they needed shelter, nutrition, health services and schools for their children. Like people everywhere, they ask for security, justice and opportunity.
Local communities in Chad, a country which has welcomed around 700,000 of its Sudanese neighbours in less than two years, said their resources - though not their generosity - were wearing thin. Food prices have soared, and vulnerable local families have been pushed further into poverty.
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Humanitarian organizations have been doing their utmost to deliver aid. We at the UN are determined to scale up the humanitarian effort, working even more closely with our partners in the humanitarian movement and the communities we serve. Our access, however, is constrained.
In my meetings with the Sudanese authorities, including President of the Transitional Sovereignty Council General Abdelfattah al-Burhan, I underlined the need for humanitarians to reach the most vulnerable so that we can assess needs, provide aid and protect people. I welcome General al-Burhan's announcement following our comprehensive meeting this week of more humanitarian flights and additional humanitarian hubs. We want to build - energetically and urgently - on this progress.
In my meeting with the Rapid Support Forces, I drove home the point that civilians need to be protected.
The people of Sudan, and the humanitarians and communities supporting them, cannot do this alone. They need the laws of war to be upheld. They need funding to meet the scale of the needs. They need access constraints to be lifted.
And they need the fighting to stop.
