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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
The writer is the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief co-ordinator. He heads the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
The scaffolding built to reduce the threats of war, famine and crisis is crumbling. In an era of transactional nationalism, there are few states willing to fight to keep global solidarity on the agenda. Nowhere is this more evident than Sudan.
For two years now, a brutal conflict has driven the worst humanitarian crisis on earth.
On Tuesday, as the UK gathers members of the international community in London to respond, leaders must do more than issue statements of concern. We must combine political muscle with creative diplomacy to bring to an end this conflict and scale up the humanitarian mission with renewed generosity.
Since it erupted in Khartoum in April 2023, the Sudan conflict between the armed forces led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces under Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (known as Hemeti) has unleashed a polycrisis across the country.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed. Critical infrastructure and basic services — including education and healthcare — have been decimated. Millions of children are out of school. Diseases — including cholera — are spreading. And an epidemic of violence and abuse against women and girls is raging unchecked. As one survivor told me in Darfur, “our bodies are being weaponised”.
Today, nearly 25mn people are acutely hungry. Two-thirds of the population — 30mn people — need aid and protection. More than 12mn have fled their homes. This includes almost 3.8mn who were generously welcomed in neighbouring countries that were already grappling with their own challenges, including South Sudan where fighting has surged in recent weeks. The crisis is exploding outwards, creating waves of insecurity, displacement and disease.
Last year, the UN and partners reached 15.6mn people across Sudan. We have scaled up our delivery across battle lines to Darfur and other epicentres of need. But we are hampered by intense fighting and crippling access constraints. Aid workers — particularly the fearless Sudanese volunteers who form the backbone of these efforts — are overwhelmed, underfunded and under attack. In just two years, more than 90 humanitarians — almost all of them Sudanese nationals — have been killed.
I spoke to some of Sudan’s front-line responders on my first day as UN humanitarian chief five months ago, before travelling to Port Sudan, Kassala and Darfur. These mutual aid groups operate hundreds of community kitchens, including in areas where famine has arrived.
When we spoke again just days ago, it was painfully clear to me that their critical work has only grown more difficult and dangerous as funding has fallen and fighting has flared.
Because of brutal aid cuts — particularly since the dismantling of USAID — survivors of sexual violence aren’t getting the support they need. Humanitarian programmes are scaling back or being shut down altogether. More people are starving. Over three-quarters of those emergency kitchens have been forced to stop cooking. We have no choice but to prioritise our response even further; every day we make life and death decisions, literally.
As the conflict enters its third year, one thing is clear: without an end to the fighting and an increase in funding, many more people will suffer, flee and die.
Devastating funding cuts are compelling the UN and our partners to refocus efforts to deliver for the communities we serve. In February, we launched a $4.2bn appeal to help nearly 21mn people in Sudan this year. However, we have had to scale back to prioritise the direst needs, and for that we need at least $2.35bn.
I make four pleas to ministers gathering in London. First, use your collective influence to protect civilians from the warring parties and those who arm them. Second, demand that aid workers are not targeted, and can work wherever they are needed. Third, provide flexible funding to help us fight famine and save lives. And fourth, deliver the problem-solving, practical, patient diplomacy needed to end this brutal war.
Some may be retreating from the global challenges we face. But the UN will not. Where states cannot lead, I refuse to believe that the public has lost its basic human solidarity with those in direst need. Sudan is a test for all of us who want to defend those values. Not just because it is in our interest to do so. But — unfashionable as it may be to say it — because it is the right thing to do.