Sudan one of world’s ‘worst crises’ in decades: medical charity

Port Sudan, Sudan (AFP): The ongoing civil war in Sudan has provoked one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises in decades, the international chief of the medical charity Doctors Without Borders said Thursday.

War has raged for more than a year between the regular military under army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.

“Sudan is one of the worst crises the world has seen for decades… yet the humanitarian response is profoundly inadequate,” Christos Christou, international president of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), said on social media platform X.

“There are extreme levels of suffering across the country, and the needs are growing by the day,” he added.

The conflict, which began in April 2023 has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and displaced more than nine million people, according to the United Nations.

Both sides have been accused of war crimes including deliberately targeting civilians, indiscriminate shelling of residential areas and blocking humanitarian aid, despite warnings that millions are on the brink of starvation.

Rights groups and the United States have also accused the paramilitaries of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.