Calls for aid and ceasefire to alleviate suffering in Sudan ahead of Ramadan

The United Nations Security Council will hold a special session later today to discuss a British draft resolution submitted to the council to impose an immediate ceasefire in Sudan, which should be implemented before the start of the holy month of Ramadan on Sunday evening. Other calls for relief are coming from a variety of states in the country.  

Reuters reported that the draft resolution urges “all parties to ensure the removal of any obstructions and enable full, rapid, safe, and unhindered humanitarian access, including cross-border and crossline, and comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law”.

This resolution, if passed with the approval of nine members of the council and without objections from the permanent members, could open the way to temporarily stop the war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that has ravaged Sudan since April 15 last year, and allow the delivery of humanitarian aid to millions of Sudanese who face the famine in most parts of the country.

South Kordofan aid meeting

The South Kordofan authorities held a five-hour long meeting with representatives of aid organisations operating in the state during which they discussed the humanitarian and health conditions of the people in Kadugli and Delling, both residents and displaced people, the South Kordofan Governor Mohamed Abdelkarim said in a press conference in Kadugli yesterday.

The governor referred to the organisations’ response and their commitment to providing urgent food aid to poor families, displaced people, and South Sudanese refugees.

He further said that it was an important development that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had reached an agreement with United Nations agencies to open the airports of Kadugli, El Obeid in north Kordofan, and El Fasher in North Darfur for humanitarian purposes. Some land and river corridors will be opened too to facilitate the delivery of much-needed aid.

“It represents a step towards the relief of the humanitarian and living conditions in the state and Sudan in general, as it will contribute to facilitating the arrival of medicines and food from the state’s share of foreign donations in Kosti and Port Sudan.”

The governmental Humanitarian Aid Commissioner (HAC) in the state, Fadlallah Abdelgader, spoke about “the need for coordination and development of partnerships with foreign and national organisations to serve the people of the state with humanitarian, service, and development support”.

He said that “the next phase will witness a great movement of UN agencies, national and foreign organisations, and popular initiatives to coordinate interventions that respond to the people’s various needs for support”.

Calls for aid in Darfur

The Services and Change Committees in the South Darfur capital of Nyala have called for speeding up the delivery of food aid to the people in the state, who are suffering from severe food shortages due to the war. The situation is desperate.

Mohamed Idris, member of the committees in Nyala, told Radio Dabanga yesterday that “many people are constantly asking about the relief that has piled up in El Fasher since October last year, provided by the King Salman Relief Center”.  

“South Darfur’s share of King Salman’s relief is still in El Fasher, capital of North Darfur, at a time when people in displaced persons camps and cities are dying of hunger.”

All work activities and businesses that people depended on to earn their livelihood have stopped and the war prevented farmers from agricultural production last season.

“As the government approved the entry of aid into the country, the local authorities must speed up the delivery of aid to save the many lives now in danger,” Idris urged.

Conference

Minni Minawi, leader of a breakaway Sudan Liberation Movement faction and governor of the Darfur region, has reportedly requested the Sudanese authorities to hold a “comprehensive conference with international organisations” to discuss humanitarian aid.

Abdelbagi Hamed, director of social welfare in the Darfur Regional Government and a member of the High Committee for Crisis Management in the region, told Radio Dabanga yesterday that Minawi also requested Lt Gen Ibrahim Jaber, chair of the Joint National Committee for Humanitarian Emergencies established in Port Sudan in early November last year, to restart “transporting relief items through the El Tina-El Fasher road, and from there to the rest of the war-torn Darfur states.

“His [Jaber’s positive] response was quick, which deserves thanks and praise.

“The humanitarian aid intended for the Darfur regions represents a small percentage of the total aid that reaches Sudan, which requires precise management to ensure that it reaches the beneficiaries without any political problems,” Hamed explained.

Both warring parties are accused of hindering humanitarian aid as a weapon of war. “The war in Sudan risks triggering the world’s largest hunger crisis,” warned the UN World Food Programme’s (WFP) executive director yesterday.