Briefing to the Security Council by Ms. Edem Wosornu, Director of Crisis Response Division, OCHA, on behalf of Mr. Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, on the humanitarian situation in Sudan
As delivered
Thank you, Mr. President.
As this catastrophic war nears the 1,000-day mark, its devastating toll on civilians continues to expand and intensify. The brutality of this conflict appears to have no bounds.
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The Kordofan states have emerged as a new epicentre, as you've heard, of violence and suffering, with attacks continuing, causing death, injury, destruction, and severely constraining humanitarian access.
As you have heard from DPPA [the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs], in South Kordofan State, more than 100 civilians were killed in drone strikes between 4 and 16 December, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. This includes strikes on a kindergarten and a hospital in Kalogi on 4 December which killed, again, at least 89 civilians, including eight women and 43 children.
Sieges around the towns of Kadugli and Dilling have tightened, with deadly shelling and drone strikes continuing.
As you've heard, a strike on the UNISFA [UN Interim Security Force for Abyei] logistics base in Kadugli on 13 December forced a temporary relocation of UN and INGO personnel from various locations in South Kordofan, including the two besieged towns. Despite widespread condemnation, attacks in the area further intensified.
On 14 December, a drone strike on a hospital in Dilling reportedly killed at least six people and injured 12 others, including medical personnel.
An inter-agency humanitarian team led by the Humanitarian Coordinator, Ms. Denise Brown, scheduled to arrive in Kadugli on 15 December was unable to proceed due to the increasingly volatile and unpredictable situation.
A United Nations convoy did reach Dilling and Kadugli in October but faced very serious security challenges en route.
In North Kordofan State, the situation has been equally alarming, with continuing attacks in and around the capital, El Obeid, and reports of forced recruitment and of civilians being prevented from leaving the area as fighting closes in.
A strike on a World Food Programme truck in North Kordofan on 5 December in which a driver was seriously injured was yet another demonstration of the grave risks humanitarian workers face across most of Sudan. This was the sixth attack harming World Food Programme assets in Sudan this year alone.
And in West Kordofan, we have also received reports of further displacement - including across the border with South Sudan - and of civilian casualties due to drone attacks following the takeover, as you've heard, of Heglig in the southern part of the state earlier this month.
Last week, local authorities in White Nile State reported some 1,600 new arrivals from the Kordofan region in the city of Kosti, of whom the vast majority were children and women.
Mr. President,
Staggering levels of humanitarian needs also persist across Darfur.
Efforts to safely access El Fasher continue, with ongoing discussions on the deployment of a security assessment team.
We continue to see new reports of serious violations of international humanitarian law during and after the takeover of El Fasher by the Rapid Support Forces, including mass killings and sexual violence.
A report of our colleagues at the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights last week details some of the horrors inflicted on civilians in the area during the Rapid Support Forces' three-day offensive on Zamzam displacement camp in April. Deliberate killings of civilians. Gruesome sexual violence, including rape and gang rape. And the prolonged blocking of food, water and the supplies essential for survival.
Humanitarian responders in Tawila and Ad Dabbah and other areas are struggling to fully cover the needs of new arrivals from El Fasher, with resources and capacities severely stretched, despite new injections of funding from the Central Emergency Response Fund and the Sudan Humanitarian Fund.
And while much of the focus of this Council's recent discussions has been on El Fasher and its surrounding areas, we must also highlight the very serious humanitarian situation in other parts of Darfur.
Again, a drone strike on the town of Katila in South Darfur State earlier this month killed over 30 civilians and injured many more.
Further civilian casualties were reported in another strike in the town of Kutum in North Darfur on the same day.
Last week, the World Health Organization reported the large numbers of health workers detained in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur. The World Health Organization has documented 65 attacks on healthcare in Sudan since January, with more than 1,600 people killed and 276 injured.
The Adre crossing from eastern Chad remains indispensable to humanitarian operations across Darfur, and we therefore noted with great alarm reports of an alleged drone attack causing a large explosion in a nearby location in West Darfur on 7 December.
Drones also continue to extend the reach of the fighting beyond the Darfur and Kordofan region. Last Friday, multiple explosions were reported in Atbara in River Nile State due to drone strikes reportedly targeting power stations, triggering widespread blackouts in the area. We have teams in all these locations.
Mr. President,
This is OCHA's 10th briefing to the Security Council on Sudan this year. Month after month, we have highlighted deadly attacks against civilians, spiralling needs, and the complex array of impediments that delay or block efforts to reach the millions of people who require urgent, life-saving humanitarian support.
We have urged the Council to use its collective influence and the full set of tools at its disposal to reduce the unacceptable risks civilians continue to face. We have pressed for deescalation and peace.
We have appealed for additional funding so that the local and international responders working in nearly impossible circumstances have the support and resources they need to deliver their work.
But over the past year, we have seen yet more atrocities and a further hardening of the apparent impunity that fuels them. Increasingly sophisticated weaponry flowing into the country has caused the violence to spread further. Deepening food insecurity and new areas falling into famine conditions. Additional waves of displaced civilians fleeing for their lives, including across borders, with broader regional destabilization effects growing. Humanitarian organizations being forced to cut back on life-saving programmes, just as the needs continue to grow. Relentless attacks on humanitarian personnel and health workers. Repeated targeting of essential infrastructure.
Despite the challenges, Mr. President, the humanitarian response continues, with 16.8 million people receiving some form of humanitarian support since January this year alone. Our system is under unprecedented strain and, increasingly, under direct attack. But it continues to deliver.
Mr. President,
As the Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, said during his briefing to this Council in October, we need to find ways to act with greater courage and collective purpose in the face of this absolutely devastating crisis.
We therefore renew our call for urgent, concerted engagement and action along three tracks:
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First - on protection. The Security Council must send a strong, unequivocal message that attacks directed against civilians, indiscriminate attacks, sexual violence, and other shameless violations of the most basic tenets of international humanitarian law will not be tolerated. Women continue to carry a disproportionate share of this crisis. The Council cannot allow the horrors that unfolded in El Fasher - despite repeated warnings - to occur again in El Obeid, again in Kadugli, in Dilling or elsewhere. You should please use your collective influence with the warring parties.
Second - access. Humanitarian workers, including the local partners who remain at the forefront of our collective efforts, our dear humanitarian colleagues, must be able to do their work safely and without interference. We continue to strengthen the United Nations' presence on the ground in all areas of need, including across the Darfur and Kordofan regions. We have colleagues in these locations. We do not feel safe. Our courageous teams need clearer guarantees so that they can operate safely.
Life-saving humanitarian supplies need to flow freely, via all necessary routes, whether across conflict lines or borders. In this regard, I note our appreciation to the Sudanese and Chadian authorities for having kept the crucial Adre border crossing available for humanitarian movement. We renew our request that this authorization be extended indefinitely and that there is increased support for host communities and refugees in Chad and other neighbouring countries.
And finally - peace. With another grim milestone in this nightmarish war approaching, renewed efforts are needed now more than ever to halt the fighting, to stop the arms flows that are fuelling the conflict, and to move the parties towards the inclusive and lasting nationwide ceasefire that is so desperately needed.
I thank you.
