Global Courant
Nairobi, Kenya
The head of the UN refugee agency warned on Tuesday that the number of people seeking refuge from the ongoing conflict in Sudan is expected to pass an important milestone of 2 million.
Filippo Grandi, Secretary General of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, during a meeting with Kenyan President William Ruto in the capital, Nairobi, drew attention to the worsening of the urgent humanitarian and refugee crisis in war-ravaged Sudan.
“The large number of refugees on the borders of Egypt and Chad has caused a lot of suffering. The saddest part is that the humanitarian team is not respected and the UNHCR office in Khartoum has been destroyed,” Grandi said, underlining the need for urgent action.
President Ruto reiterated Grandi’s sentiments, emphasizing the importance of giving unrestricted access and freedom of operation to humanitarian organizations operating in Sudan.
He urged the warring parties to prioritize the welfare of the affected population and to ensure that humanitarian workers fulfill their duties without hindrance.
Grandi told Ruto that UNHCR has achieved a significant boost in humanitarian efforts with a recent call for donations that brought in $1.5 billion on Monday.
However, he stressed that an additional $3 billion is needed to adequately address the escalating crisis.
The meeting between Ruto and Grandi coincided with World Refugee Day, celebrated annually on 20 June.
At the center of the ongoing crisis are two opposing military figures: Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, prominent leader of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), commonly known as Hemedti).
Sudan has not had a functioning government since October 2021, when the military dismissed Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok’s transitional government and declared a state of emergency.
The transition period, which began in August 2019 following the overthrow of President Omar al-Bashir, was originally scheduled to result in elections in early 2024.
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