Sudan | Humanitarian crisis reaches catastrophic breaking point, says UN

(Geneva) The humanitarian crisis in war-ravaged Sudan has reached a “catastrophic breaking point” amid fighting and devastating floods, the United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Monday, ahead of peace talks scheduled for later this week.

The talks face uncertainty as the Sudanese military has yet to confirm its participation in the meeting in Switzerland, hosted by the United States and Saudi Arabia.

The northeast African country descended into chaos last April when tensions between the army and a paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces, erupted into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, before spreading across the country. The western region of Darfur has seen some of the most devastating bouts of fighting.

The conflict has killed thousands and pushed many to starvation. Atrocities such as mass rape and ethnically motivated killings amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, according to the UN and international human rights groups.

The war in Sudan has created the world’s largest displacement crisis. According to IOM, more than 10.7 million people have been forced to flee their homes since the fighting began. More than 2 million of them have fled to neighbouring countries.

Devastating floods in recent weeks have compounded the tragedy, with dozens of people killed and critical infrastructure washed away in 11 of Sudan’s 18 provinces, local authorities said.

“We are at a breaking point, a catastrophic, cataclysmic breaking point,” said Othman Belbeisi, IOM regional director.

And these conditions will worsen if the war and restrictions on humanitarian access continue, Mr. Belbeisi warned. “Without an immediate, strong and coordinated global response, we risk seeing tens of thousands of preventable deaths in the months ahead.”

Last month, international experts confirmed a famine in a huge displacement camp in Darfur. And an estimated 25.6 million people – more than half of Sudan’s population – will face acute food insecurity, experts from the Famine Review Committee have warned.

Fighting is raging in the Darfur town of Al Fasher and in the southeastern state of Sennar, where clashes have forced more than 700,000 people to flee in the past month, according to IOM.

The military has not yet confirmed whether it will attend a new round of ceasefire talks scheduled for Wednesday in Switzerland, U.S. special envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello told reporters in Geneva on Monday. The Rapid Support Forces said they would attend.

The UN, the African Union, Sudan’s neighbour Egypt and the United Arab Emirates – which has been accused of supporting the Sudanese military by supplying it with weapons, a claim denied by UAE officials – are expected to attend the talks as observers.