Relentless violence has devastated Sudan and large-scale fighting has escalated in and around the only capital in Sudan's western Darfur region not held by paramilitary forces, the United Nations top humanitarian official said Wednesday.
Acting humanitarian chief Joyce Msuya told the U.N. Security Council that famine has already struck Zamzam camp , about 15 kilometers (10 miles) from North Darfur's embattled capital of El Fasher. She said a large-scale humanitarian operation is "a matter of life and death."
Sudan plunged into conflict in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary leaders broke out in the capital Khartoum and spread to other regions including Darfur. The U.N. says over 14,000 people have been killed and 33,000 injured.
Msuya urged the council to demand that the warring government and paramilitary Rapid Support Force refrain from targeting civilians, hospitals, schools and other civilian infrastructure, and allow unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid through all border crossings and across conflict lines.
She also called on the U.N.'s 193 member nations to pressure the parties "to agree to a humanitarian pause to save lives, give civilians respite and allow us to deliver assistance."
