Osman Sheiba, a spokesperson for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Sudan, has highlighted significant obstacles to delivering humanitarian aid in Darfur, Khartoum, and Kordofan.
In an interview with Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, Sheiba revealed an urgent need for $240 million to prevent famine over the next six months and to reach approximately 3.5 million children under the age of five living in Sudan’s most vulnerable areas.
Sheiba detailed numerous challenges, including bureaucratic hurdles, disruptions in wired and wireless communications, looting, and restricted access to affected populations, all of which severely impede the provision of life-saving humanitarian services and supplies to children.
He emphasized the need for streamlined administrative requirements, including inspection and clearance processes, to facilitate aid delivery across frontlines and borders, especially from Chad and South Sudan.
“The ongoing disruption of communications severely limits the humanitarian agencies’ capacity to respond on a large scale and restricts families’ access to basic services,” Sheiba stated.
He added that a near-total communications blackout in Sudan since early February has hindered millions from contacting their families, receiving remittances from abroad, and accessing life-saving aid.
Sheiba also stressed the need for additional resources to address the regional impact of the crisis, warning that without sufficient aid, the already scarce resources in host countries could create tensions among local communities and exacerbate the effects of the conflict beyond Sudan’s borders.
Before the conflict erupted over a year ago, Sudan was already facing deteriorating food security. Since then, humanitarian conditions have worsened, leading to mass displacement, disruption of access to basic services, disease outbreaks, and increased food insecurity.
These conditions pose a significant threat to the lives of millions of children under five, as well as pregnant women and nursing mothers, who are particularly vulnerable to severe malnutrition.
According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification forecast in December 2023, around 17.7 million people were facing Phase 3 acute food insecurity or higher—crisis, emergency, and catastrophe levels—between October 2023 and February 2024.
Currently, approximately 3.6 million children are suffering from acute malnutrition, including over 730,000 children with severe acute malnutrition, which is life-threatening and requires urgent medical intervention.
Sheiba anticipates a further deterioration in conditions, noting that the Famine Early Warning Systems Network reported that families in the conflict’s hardest-hit areas, including parts of Khartoum, West Darfur, and among displaced populations in hard-to-reach areas of Greater Darfur and around El Fasher, would face disastrous outcomes.
