Sudan Is an Atrocities Laboratory - UN Relief Chief

15 April 2026
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (New York)
document

Remarks at International Humanitarian Conference for Sudan by Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator

As delivered

Thank you, Commissioner [Hadja] Lahbib, and thank you to our hosts.

As you have heard from the Secretary-General and others, this conference marks a grim and chastening milestone for us all.

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We must ask ourselves which statements were given a year ago that are similar to today's statements, and which statements do we risk giving in one more year, which are similar to today's statements?

Let me be very brief, because UN colleagues will come in later with more detail.

I'll give you the key contours, the plan and the asks.

The key contours of the humanitarian landscape right now, as I said earlier.

Sudan is an atrocities laboratory: sieges; denial of food; weaponized sexual violence, as Commissioner Labib described; the targeting of schools and hospitals, Chikwe [Ihekweazu] from the [World Health Organization] will say more of this later on.

Drones have killed 700 people just this year, and 130 humanitarians have been killed over three years.

I often have to call the families of those who died, and they always ask, did our family members die in vain?

And this isn't just a situation grinding on - it's getting worse.

UNICEF, and Hannan [Sulieman] will speak later, have documented that, between January and March this year, 160 kids killed - and that's a 50 per cent increase on the same time period last year.

So, 34 million people - two thirds [of the population] - need help; 13.5 million people - three times the population of Berlin - are displaced, and you'll hear from Raouf [Mazou of the UN Refugee Agency] and Ugochi [Daniels of the International Organization for Migration] later on the regional implications of that. Nineteen million are food insecure, and Carl [Skau of the World Food Programme] is just back from Darfur. Ten million kids out of school.

And of course, the Middle East conflict is adding a layer to this challenge. Freight costs up 25 per cent. Rising fuel and food costs. Half of Sudan's fertilizer comes from the Gulf, and we're approaching the main growing season in April and May.

So our plan, in line with the Humanitarian Reset, we have hyper-prioritized an effort to reach 14 million people within the overall target of over 20 million.

We need US$2.2 billion to do that this year. We've reached 2 million people already this year. We have devolved a lot of authority to the country team and outstanding Humanitarian Coordinator; 35 per cent of our funding is going to local organizations.

We're delivering this in a reform system as part of UN80, and you'll hear more about that later on, and the Reset.

We've got to keep the access routes open. That means Adre - not just these one-month, two-month, three-month extensions. More safe routes into the Kordofans - El Obeid, Dilling, Kadugli - and to Blue Nile.

We've got to expand our footprint in Darfur. The Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator is now based in Tawila, and into the Kordofans, and our Humanitarian Coordinator will be there this weekend.

We now have 93 staff in Darfur, which is a trebling of where we were in October 2025, and we need you to help us prioritize the enablers - the flights, the security, the comms, the medicine, the logistics - to help our response.

Our asks: please front load the flexible multi-year funding. Our 2025 plan, as the [Secretary-General] said, less than 40 per cent funded, with the leading funders, 27 per cent from the US, 14 per cent from the EU, and between 3 and 10 per cent from the UK, Germany, Switzerland and Canada.

Second, help us on the red tape: the visas, the travel permits need to move more quickly. We need Adre extended permanently, and we need to reduce the delays on the approvals for our supplies and our convoys.

And finally, as I said earlier, stop the flow of advanced weaponry. Track the arms going in, insist on protection of civilians, and, as you'll hear from [High Commissioner for Human Rights] Volker Turk later on, insist on accountability for the serious violations that continue.

Thank you.

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