According to the UN Global Humanitarian Overview for 2021, the Sudan humanitarian appeal was the fourth-largest globally following Syria, Yemen, and DRC, seeing as the country generously hosts more than 1 million refugees from Ethiopia, South Sudan, Eritrea, and many other countries. In this year alone, armed conflict in Sudan has displaced more than 418,000 new people, adding to over three million internally displaced people in the past twenty years. In this year so far, NRC has helped over 110,000 conflict and displacement victims around the country by providing shelter, clean water, education, multipurpose cash, and other community services.
According to the statement by Will Carter, Sudan’s Country Director of the Norwegian Refugee Council, changes in the country’s political leadership should not in any way alter exceptional policy commitments set for protecting civilians and ensuring that aid organizations can still help the vulnerable victims of decades of conflict. This comes following the fact that too much is already at stake for over 13 million people in Sudan who are in dire need of humanitarian aid.
Nearly a third of Sudan’s population requires humanitarian assistance to survive, yet the 2021 UN-led humanitarian response plan is only a quarter funded. Sudan’s leaders, therefore, have a collective responsibility and opportunity to break from a difficult past and immediately eliminate all barriers hindering the timely delivery of humanitarian assistance. The Norwegian Refugee Council appeals to the international community not to neglect the people of Sudan in this hour of need.
