Tom Fletcher, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, speaking in a video to the UN. Photo: Screengrab/Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A senior United Nations humanitarian official on Monday lamented the severe toll that Sudan’s civil war is taking on children, speaking via video from Darfur as the conflict enters its second year.
Tom Fletcher, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said in a video to the UN in New York, “Here in Korma in Darfur we are very close now to El Fasher, which has been the epicenter of inhumanity in this conflict.”
“It is a crisis that hits children hardest. One of five people killed in al Fasher was a child, and I met so many kids who were carrying their younger siblings to safety,”he said, recounting an encounter with a young boy who “recoiled away from me in terror” when he pointed to the logo on his football shirt.
“These kids have been through so much,” he added.
In response to a question from Rudaw, Fletcher warned that the true toll of the war remains unclear, stating, “I think no one can say with much authority how many people have been killed and exactly how many people have been displaced. All I can say is that everyone I spoke to in Tawil had lost relatives, close relatives, so the numbers are clearly huge.”
Meanwhile, Julius Maada Bio, President of Sierra Leone and this month’s UN Security Council president, also noted, “We are beginning to shift attention to it [Sudan war], maybe because the guns are about to fall silent in Gaza.” With more than 12 million displaced inside Sudan and millions more in neighboring states, he warned that the conflict is creating major regional challenges.
Fletcher said he held talks this week with both warring parties - the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese army - urging them to allow humanitarian access and to increase UN staff on the ground.
A UN video from inside Sudan showed US aid reaching some communities despite the fighting.
Mike Waltz, US Ambassador to the UN, recently remarked, “In Sudan, the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, starvation has become a weapon. Starvation has become rampant as the parties use food as a tactic of war… all parties and I emphasize all parties to the conflict must facilitate and allow rapid, safe, and unhindered humanitarian access throughout Sudan.”
The civil war has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions since it erupted in April 2023.
Namo Abdulla contributed to this article.
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