FILE PHOTO: A child stands between two women at a school turned into a shelter, in Port Sudan, Sudan, August 29, 2024. REUTERS/Abrahim Mohammed Ishac/File Photo
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The conflict in Sudan has created the "largest and the most devastating humanitarian crisis in the world" as the warring parties lay siege to towns and block aid deliveries, top aid officials told the U.N. Security Council on Thursday.
The war erupted in April 2023 amid a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) ahead of a planned transition to civilian rule. The United Nations says that nearly two-thirds of Sudan's population - more than 30 million people - will need aid this year.
"The Rapid Support Forces, the Sudanese Armed Forces, and other parties to the conflict are not only failing to protect civilians – they are actively compounding their suffering," said Christopher Lockyear, head of MSF (Doctors Without Borders).
The RSF denies blocking aid or harming civilians and attributes the activity to rogue actors. The RSF has said it would investigate allegations and bring perpetrators to justice.
The SAF also denies blocking aid or harming civilians. Sudan's U.N. Ambassador Al-Harith Idriss Al-Harith Mohamed told the Security Council that the Sudanese government has a national plan for the protection of civilians and added Lockyear did not raise any issues with him when they met privately.
FAMINE, CHILD RAPE
Famine has taken hold in at least five locations in Sudan, where an estimated 1.3 million children under five live, the head of the U.N. children's agency UNICEF, Catherine Russell, told the Security Council.
"Over 3 million children under five are at imminent risk of deadly disease outbreaks, including cholera, malaria, and dengue, due to a failing health system," she said.
Sudan's U.N. ambassador said the country's Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry confirmed this week the stability of the food situation.
Hundreds of boys and girls were also raped in 2024, Russell said, noting that in 16 recorded cases the children were under the age of five. She paused before adding: "Four were babies under the age of one."
"The data only gives us a glimpse into what we know is a far larger, more devastating crisis," Russell said, citing a database the UN said was compiled by Sudan-based groups helping survivors of sexual violence.
Lockyear said MSF teams had provided support for 385 survivors of sexual violence in 2024.
"The vast majority — including some younger than 5 — had been raped, often by armed men. Nearly half were assaulted while working in the fields. Women and girls are not merely unprotected; they are being brutally targeted," he said.
A U.N. fact-finding mission reported in October that the RSF and allies have committed "staggering" levels of sexual abuse. The RSF has previously said it would investigate allegations and bring perpetrators to justice.
The U.S. determined in January that members of the RSF and allied militias committed genocide in Sudan.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
