The General Director of Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) described the situation in Sudan as “the most significant humanitarian crisis in the world that we face today,” during a press conference in Amman on Monday.
“The warring parties in Sudan have been inflicting horrendous levels of violence on people since the war started in April of last year,” said MSF’s Vickie Hawkins at an event to mark the release of a new report on the war.
Hawkins said the report details how the war has led to indiscriminate violence, killing, torture and sexual violence, in addition to continuous attacks on health workers and medical facilities.
“The report sheds light on the direct and deadly impact of the war on the people of Sudan, which has left the country’s health service largely in ruins,” she added.
She added that both warring parties are involved in violence throughout Sudan and said that hospitals have been frequently looted and attacked.
“Since May, MSF-supported hospitals or premises have been hit by shelling or airstrikes at least five times in Omdurman, Khartoum and el-Fasher, leading to the deaths of health workers and patients, including children. Hospitals in which we work in el-Fasher and in Khartoum were also stormed and attacked,” she said.
Hawkins made an urgent plea to the warring parties to ensure the protection of civilians and humanitarian workers, and urged vested partner states and regional bodies “to increase pressure on the warring parties in Sudan to abide by their obligations.”
She also called for more humanitarian aid, saying the current response “is nowhere equivalent to the need.”
“We need the UN and the humanitarian sector at large to scale up, in order to provide more adequate response in terms of the huge health needs that we see, the massive needs in relation to nutrition, shelter, water and sanitation,” she said.
Sudan has been rocked by violence since April of last year, when tensions between the country’s military, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Gen. Mohamed Hamden Dagalo, burst into open fighting.
