OCHA Sudan: ‘UN providing aid to 30k Blue Nile displaced’

The UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, Khardiata Lô N’Diaye, has expressed her support for the victims of the recent intercommunal violence and mass displacement in Blue Nile state, saying that the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is “providing assistance to the thousands of vulnerable people in parts of Blue Nile state”.

Various humanitarian stakeholders working in concert with OCHA are also aiming to expand the field capacity of the Ed Damazin Royal Teaching Hospital, by providing tents and outpatient treatment to cope with the increasing caseload. The organisations will provide enough health and medical supplies for 30,000 people, including emergency health and trauma kits. They will also provide meals to around 4,500 displaced people.

The UN statement confirmed that the aid package would be delivered to the Federal Ministry of Health, which would then be sent to Blue Nile state. On a state level, the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors described the Blue Nile state Health Ministry as being absent. “El Roseires and Ed Damazin hospitals are flooded with casualties, and there are shortages in everything including medical workers who are doing their best in this complicated situation,” the doctors committee reported on its Facebook page.

Activist Ehab Babiker Ibrahim told Radio Dabanga from Ed Damazin that there are many corpses still scattered in the neighbourhoods of the town. He accused the Blue Nile state Ministry of Health as well as the government forces of neglecting to collect corpses from the streets, and leaving them exposed to rotting.

The OCHA coordinator also called on “all parties to stop the violence, talk to each other, and seek mutually acceptable solutions”.

Violence and displacement in Blue Nile state and Darfur

According to the recent OCHA report*, “since 19 July, about 14,000 people have been displaced from El Roseires in Blue Nile State following a wave of intercommunal violence”.

They stated in their June report that the total number of displaced “is likely to increase”, and that the Federal Ministry of Heath has attributed “97 total deaths related to the violence”.

The UN organisation also expressed their concern over the continued deterioration of Darfur’s security situation. Stating that, conflict in the Kerenik region of West Darfur has resulted in the deaths of 275 people and 117,369 displaced.

*Read the full UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs report here: Sudan – Humanitarian Snapshot – June 2022