Remarks at the joint launch of the 2025 Sudan Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan and Regional Refugee Response Plan by Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator
Geneva, 17 February 2025
As delivered
Ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us today.
If I can just depart briefly from the prepared remarks as we kick off, because I think a lot of us are probably sat here thinking, is the UN humanitarian system really launching its biggest ever Sudan humanitarian appeal at a moment when the conversation is understandably about aid cuts and aid freezes, and the toughest potential environment for humanitarian work in our living working memory?
And I just think it is important to recognize that those challenges do exist. And Filippo [Grandi] and I, and our colleagues, recognize that very clearly and are taking the very tough decisions that are necessary to continue our lifesaving work in this environment. But a tough funding crisis does not mean that crises in places like Sudan disappear. And I refuse to believe that behind these challenges, we collectively have lost our ability to reach out and support those in dire need. So, yes, maybe it does feel strange to be launching an appeal on this scale at this moment, but would it not feel even stranger not to be launching an appeal at this scale when the needs are so great?
So, thank you for joining us today. As we have heard from Dominique [Hyde], Sudan remains in the grip of a massive humanitarian crisis.
You have heard the figure, nine million have been internally displaced - equivalent to the entire population of Switzerland.
And as Filippo will describe, almost 3.5 million others displaced into neighbouring countries.
Twenty-four-point-six million people - over half the population - food insecure, with alarming reports of famine conditions spreading in North Darfur State and the eastern Nuba Mountains, and many other areas at risk.
And this in a country with a wealth of agricultural resources.
Healthcare services in tatters and civilians paying the highest price.
Shelling and airstrikes continue unabated, killing and injuring civilians, damaging and destroying critical infrastructure, including hospitals.
In recent days, reports of further fighting in and around Zamzam in North Darfur, of more civilian casualties in the camp, roads in and out of the area being blocked.
This is of course one of three displacement sites in the El Fasher where famine conditions have been identified.
Fighting has intensified in South Kordofan in recent weeks - another state in which famine conditions have recently been confirmed.
And across the country, women and girls continue to suffer through appalling patterns of conflict-related sexual violence.
Young men, boys, forcibly recruited and used in combat.
Millions of children cut off from education. The collapse of the education system has compounded the risks faced of course by Sudanese girls, of child marriage, gender-based violence.
Colleagues,
Access remains heavily constrained, particularly where the fighting is most acute.
It is not all gloom and doom. We have seen some positive steps, including a lengthy recent inter-agency mission to North Darfur from Chad via the Adre crossing - the first such mission in many months. Aid convoys have been able to reach some critical areas.
And I welcome the conversations I had with General Al-Burhan in the last few days about the importance of keeping the Adre crossing open. But this is a fraction of what is needed. And each movement only happens after complex engagement and bureaucratic processes.
And I am afraid to say that we are seeing a further tightening of the humanitarian space, affecting crossline and cross-border operations.
And as a result, our field presence remains a fraction of what it was prior to the conflict.
So we are determined to continue to scale up our operations, through all available routes, and to ensure that we are positioned to take the fullest advantage of the openings as they arise to do our work.
We are ready to do much, much more. Clementine Nkweta-Salami, our Humanitarian Coordinator on the ground, will speak shortly to some of the heroic work that she is leading with our partners to deliver that access that we need.
This includes, of course, local responders, civil society organizations who continue to serve as the front line of that response in many areas, often risking their lives in the process.
And I was able to meet many of the responders when I visited Sudan last November, in my first week as Emergency Relief Coordinator.
I remain in awe of their dedication and of the sacrifices they have made in service of their families, their neighbours and their communities.
We are also honoured, as you heard, to have among our speakers today, Ms. Shaza Ahmed, the Executive Director of Nada El Azhar, a Sudanese, women-led organization providing support to survivors of gender-based violence.
So colleagues, we are here today to launch two plans.
Together they request US$6 billion to support close to 21 million people in Sudan and up to 5 million others - primarily refugees in neighbouring countries.
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As I said at the start, we recognize that this is a staggering amount of money, the largest UN-coordinated appeal in Sudan's history.
It would be a staggering amount to try to raise in normal times, let alone in the midst of the financial squeeze that we are experiencing. But we have made a start already with over $300 million raised on Friday in Addis - because this is a humanitarian crisis that is truly unprecedented in its scale and gravity. And it demands a response unprecedented in scale and intent.
It is a crisis that is increasingly crossing Sudan's borders, threatening to destabilize neighbours in ways that will be felt for generations to come.
But of course today is not just about funding.
We need the international community to come together in support of Sudanese civilians.
To press for an immediate end to the appalling violations of international humanitarian law that have come to define this war.
To ensure that civilians - including our humanitarian personnel and volunteers - are protected, and that humanitarian access is facilitated and enabled, with the urgency required.
And we are also asking the international community to end any external support that adds fuel to this fire.
We must help the people of Sudan to find a pathway to peace.
Thank you.
