‘Sudan’s humanitarian needs reach $982 million’: OCHA

A significant increase in humanitarian needs in Sudan during the first six months of 2014 has necessitated a revision of the Sudan Response Plan.  Aid agencies in Sudan urgently require $982 million to assist 6.9 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, constituting roughly 20 percent of Sudan’s population, the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Sudan reported in a press release issued on Wednesday. The humanitarian needs vary to include shelter, protection, nutrition, health, and potable water. The first half of 2014 saw more people displaced in Darfur than in any single year since the height of the crisis in 2004, OCHA states, while the conflict in South Sudan has driven over 85,000 people across the border to seek refuge in Sudan. Moreover, following a comprehensive Sudan-wide survey, revised planning figures for malnutrition showed an increase in people suffering from acute malnutrition, especially children. Given these new needs, aid agencies in Sudan have reassessed their priorities, and refocused primarily on the immediate delivery of life saving assistance. Although most conflicts in Sudan are protracted, the vulnerabilities faced by affected communities are acute.”For example,” OCHA explains, ”the water and sanitation services for newly displaced people who have fled to Darfur’s camps are now severely overstretched, giving rise to the spread of diseases such as jaundice and hepatitis E.” “The Sudan humanitarian response plan has been revised to reflect the deteriorating situation in Darfur, the influx of new refugees from South Sudan, and Sudan’s acute malnutrition crisis,” Ali El Za’tari, the Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, said.“To ensure that people made vulnerable by these crises get the assistance they need, I call on the donor community to support the Plan, and help aid agencies obtain the humanitarian space needed to deliver relief where it is needed most.”For OCHA’s Situation update on new displacements in Darfur, 13 July 2014, please click here. File photo: New displaced children under a provisional shelter in Kalma camp, South Darfur, 9 March 2014. They fled the widespread Rapid Support Forces attacks on areas southeast of Nyala on 27 and 28 February. (Albert González Farran/Unamid) Related: ‘Starving displaced need protection’: South Darfur camp head (15 July 2014) ‘More than 2.3 million displaced in Darfur’: DRA survey (14 July 2014) WFP, UNHCR appeal for urgent extra funding (2 July 2014) Drought, instability worsen food insecurity in Sudan (2 July 2014)  MSF team denied access to South Darfur camp (2 July 2014)‘Displacement is becoming a children’s crisis in Sudan’: Unicef (2 April 2014)