Denise Brown issued a statement deploring the “indiscriminate” attacks impacting civilians and civilian infrastructure.
She stressed that people in the south, including in the Kherson and Odesa regions, had endured “a particularly harsh weekend” after reports that strikes left many civilians, including children, killed and injured.
An entire family, including an infant, were among the victims, according to media reports. Homes, hospitals and schools were also damaged.
Humanitarians also affected
“The attacks also affected humanitarians and our capacity to support those suffering the consequences of the war,” Ms. Brown said.
She reported that partners from the non-governmental organisation ADRA had to stop distribution of vital items after their warehouse and cars were damaged by shelling in the Kherson region.
“Civilians and civilian infrastructure must be respected – they should never be a target,” she stressed.
Last Thursday, Ms. Brown condemned a Russian attack targeting a hotel in Zaporizhzhya used by UN and NGO personnel, in which one person was reportedly killed and 16 injured.
Aid delivery continues
Meanwhile, the UN and partners continue to support people across Ukraine.
Last week, two inter-agency convoys delivered assistance to front-line communities in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.
The convoys delivered bottled water, food, medicines, shelter materials, hygiene kits, and household items to support more than 15,000 people who remain in these areas.
Since January, humanitarians have delivered aid to more than 7.3 million people in Ukraine, where a total of 18 million people need support.
Agencies continue to reach people despite the challenges, including the ongoing rainy season, UN Spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, told journalists in New York on Monday.
Roughly 4.3 million people in the West African country rely on humanitarian aid.
Last week, 22,000 people in the Maradi region, located in the centre, received cash assistance and food items.
“We and our humanitarian partners are also working with de facto authorities to identify and prepare a site to accommodate about 13,000 internally displaced people in Ouro Gueladjo, in the Tillabéri region,” Mr. Dujarric said.
He added that the people had been displaced from several villages in mid-July, before the current political crisis.
Mediation and concern
The attempted overthrow of President Bazoum has been condemned by the UN and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
Secretary-General António Guterres and other senior UN officials have repeatedly called for the reinstatement of the democratically elected leader, who remains under house arrest.
Last week, both Mr. Guterres and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, voiced concern following reports that the President and his family are living without electricity, water, food or medicine.
“Those responsible for the detention of the President must ensure the full respect and protection of his human rights, and of all others being held,” Mr. Türk said on Friday.
The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for West Africa and the Sahel, Léonardo Santos Simão, has also warned that the security situation in the region could worsen unless the political crisis in Niger is resolved.
The UN supports mediation efforts by ECOWAS towards restoring constitutional order in Niger.
During a meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, last Thursday, the regional bloc ordered the immediate activation of its intervention force.
The development came in the wake of its extraordinary summit held in Abuja just days after the crisis erupted, where leaders issued a communiqué that called for President Bazoum to be returned to power within a week of their meeting.
International media reported on Monday that the de facto leaders in Niger plan to prosecute the President for high treason and undermining internal and external security.
Of that figure, 6.3 million people – 13 per cent of Sudan’s population – are experiencing emergency levels of hunger – classified as Phase 4 of the Integrated Food Security Classification – just one step from famine, with the conflict continuing to disrupt access to humanitarian aid and forcing millions to flee their homes.
“The operating environment in Sudan is without a doubt the most challenging that I have experienced in my career,” said Eddie Rowe, WFP Country Director for Sudan, recalling his more than 30 years with the UN agency.
“Since mid-April, the conflict has continued to spread, and its dynamics have become increasingly more complex. Gaining access to people in need of life-saving food assistance has also become more challenging and increasingly urgent.”
Bureaucratic barriers, looting of humanitarian facilities, and insecurity hamper aid delivery. At least 18 relief workers have been killed, with many others injured or detained. The situation is further compounded by funding shortages, fuel scarcity and inadequate infrastructure.
Breakthrough – first food aid delivery to West Darfur
Despite the immense difficulties, WFP had a major breakthrough last week, successfully delivering food assistance to West Darfur State, which has been heavily affected by the conflict.
A convoy of five trucks transporting 125 tons of food commodities travelled from eastern Chad to West Darfur, where WFP delivered one month’s worth of food assistance to around 15,400 people, Mr. Rowe said.
“It is our hope that this route from Chad will become a regular humanitarian corridor to reach these families in West Darfur, especially in Geneina – the capital of West Darfur – where lives have been torn apart by the violence,” he added.
OCHA
Sudan displacement map as of 1 August 2023. Map: OCHA, Data sources: IOM, UNHCR
Most vulnerable ‘barely surviving’
Mr. Rowe went on to note that the situation is “catastrophic” in West and Central Darfur.
“Our teams passed through towns and villages that are abandoned following a mass exodus of people. Health facilities, banks and other critical infrastructure are destroyed,” he said, adding that those who remain are mostly women and their children who are acutely vulnerable and have not fled because they are too scared.
Their husbands have been killed, injured, or have gone missing.
“These families are barely surviving. Most are only eating just one meal a day, sharing what food they have with neighbours and selling what they own simply to afford food,” the WFP official said.
Humanitarians doing ‘everything possible’
Since the outbreak of conflict between Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces in April, WFP has delivered emergency food and nutrition assistance to 1.6 million people across Sudan, including those trapped in Khartoum State.
“The situation [in Khartoum] is volatile, and we have to seize often brief windows of calm to get our trucks into these areas and to safely deliver the food assistance into the hands of people who need it,” Mr. Rowe said.
The WFP official highlighted that UN and humanitarian workers “are doing everything possible” to deliver support in Darfur and across Sudan, and called on all parties to the conflict to facilitate humanitarian access and enable the safe delivery of assistance.
At least 13 people were killed, more than 60 injured, and thousands displaced in four days of deadly violence, which broke out on 30 July. The camp also housed about 360 UNRWA staff, some of whom were trapped and one injured by the fighting.
Hope for continued calm
Dorothee Klaus, Director of UNRWA Affairs in Lebanon, visited the camp on Wednesday, and expressed hope that the situation remains calm.
“I heard today of families unable to leave houses for days under fire and injured upon escape, children crying of fear and women’s hair turning white,” she said, adding that UNRWA will consecutively support clearance of rubble and reinstatement of damaged water networks and electricity lines.
“A secure environment is necessary for UNRWA to operate. We are collaborating with partners to prepare clearance of affected camp sites once possible, to ensure the safety of the community and UNRWA staff from remnants of the war,” she said.
Health centres at the Ein El Hilweh camp
Ein El Hilweh camp, one of 12 refugee camps in Lebanon, was established in 1948. It is located south of Saida in southern Lebanon.
The camp hosts two health centres providing services to an average of 575 patients daily.
Its services include primary healthcare, general curative care, specialized consultations, prevention and control of communicable and non-communicable diseases, pharmacy, dental, and laboratory testing.
It also provides refugees with mental health support, and runs maternal, child and school health programmes.
For the next six months, the Bab al-Hawa border crossing will be accessible and allow much-needed assistance to reach millions of people in northwest Syria.
Bab al-Hawa has been used since 2014, when the UN Security Council authorized cross-border relief deliveries “across conflict lines”. Around 85 per cent of aid deliveries have passed through Bab al-Hawa from Türkiye since then.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres welcomed the decision, following talks between UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths and Syrian government officials, said UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq.
The agreement also involved authorization for the UN to use the Bab al-Salam and Al-Ra’ee border crossings for an additional three months, which originally opened earlier this year as part of the emergency response to the earthquake disaster that hit Syria and Türkiye in February.
Humanitarian Assistance in North Syria
This news comes as humanitarian needs are at an all-time high after more than 12 years of war and in the wake of the devastating double earthquakes that struck the region in February.
Almost 12 million people – more than half the population of Syria – do not have enough to eat and a further 2.9 million are at risk of sliding into hunger, according to the UN.
In June, Mr. Griffiths warned that “twelve years of conflict, economic collapse, and other factors have pushed 90 per cent of the population below the poverty line.”
UN humanitarians warned UN Security Council members earlier this summer that Syrians are facing an “ever worsening humanitarian crisis.”
Trucks carrying essential humanitarian supplies travel from Türkiye through the Bab al-Salam border crossing, into northwest Syria.
Multilateral efforts
The northwest region is the last opposition stronghold in Syria, and aid has been delivered there from Türkiye through a cross-border mechanism first authorized by the UN Security Council in 2014.
The first draft resolution, tabled by Brazil and Switzerland, called for a nine-month extension and included a paragraph on the expansion of crossline operations, increased funding, enhanced early recovery activities and humanitarian mine action.
Although 13 of the 15 countries in the Council voted in favour of the resolution, it was struck down by a no vote from Russia, one of the five permanent members. China, another permanent member, abstained.
The latest agreement will see the delivery of life-saving supplies to populations in the northwest – despite the worrying funding shortfalls that still hinder humanitarian response.
Ramesh Rajasingham of the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, said In July that “despite these severe vulnerabilities, the 2023 Humanitarian Response Plan for Syria is only 12.4 per cent funded.” He warned that in the absence of urgent funding, humanitarians will have to make “difficult choices again this year”.
The “unprecedented” funding crisis in Syria has also forced agencies like the UN World Food Programme (WFP) to announce vast cuts to aid provisions, including reductions to monthly food rations.
Ted Chaiban of the UN children’s agency, UNICEF, and Edem Wosornu with the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, briefed journalists on their recent mission to the country and Chad, one of several neighbouring nations hosting some 900,000 people who fled the violence.
Fighting between the Sudanese Army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) recently passed the 100-day mark. Overall, 24 million people across the country require aid.
Dreading another Darfur
Mr. Chaiban, UNICEF’s Deputy Executive Director for Humanitarian Action and Supply Operations, expressed hope that ongoing talks in Saudi Arabia will lead to a cessation of hostilities. He said the conflict is threatening the lives and futures of children and young people, who make up over 70 per cent of Sudan’s population.
“I saw the total of the atrocities committed against children and women during the darkest days of the Darfur conflict 18 years ago. Both Edem and I were there. And I think we’re deeply concerned that we could be looking at a repetition of these terrible days,” he warned.
In Sudan, children are being killed, injured, abducted, and even recruited into armed groups. They have fallen victim to ethnic- and gender-based violence, while the schools and hospitals they depend on are being damaged, destroyed and looted.
Mr. Chaiban said nearly 14 million children desperately need humanitarian relief – a number that is equivalent to all the boys and girls in Colombia, France, Germany or Thailand. Some 1.7 million have been driven from their homes, adding to the nearly two million who were already uprooted before the crisis.
Ted Chaiban, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director speaks to staff on the ground in Atbara in northeastern Sudan.
Impossible choices
“Parents are making the impossible choice of deciding whether to stay or leave, and leave everything behind they have known,” he said. “And those children who are on the move, both within Sudan and neighbouring countries, are vulnerable to hunger, disease, violence and separation from their families.”
Furthermore, three million under-fives in Sudan are malnourished, with 700,000 at risk of severe acute malnutrition and mortality. Some 1.7 million children could miss out on critical vaccinations, raising the risk of disease outbreaks.
“In White Nile State we currently have what is usually a lethal combination, which is acute watery diarrhea, measles and malnutrition in the same place, and that needs to absolutely be contained because otherwise the consequences are severe,” he said.
‘The world needs to wake up’
This week, UN agencies reported that more than 20 million people across Sudan now face severe hunger and six million are on the brink of famine. Nearly four million people alone have fled their homes to seek safety, including across the border into Chad, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Ethiopia and Egypt.
Of those who remain, scores have been flocking to Port Sudan, the city on the Red Sea where the UN established a hub shortly after the fighting broke out. The arrivals are being hosted by family and friends who can barely meet their own needs as rents skyrocket and civil servants go unpaid, said Ms. Wosornu, Director of OCHA’s Operations and Advocacy Division.
She met with women in Port Sudan and the nearby town of Sinkat, “and their stories keep me awake at night.” These women spoke about seeing their homes “obliterated in one minute”, or difficulties in accessing lifesaving medicine such as insulin.
“We are receiving credible reports of all sorts of horrors and the world needs to wake up and hear this,” she said.
Delivering aid to millions
Ms. Wosornu pointed to “the good news amidst all this gloom”, as the UN and 93 humanitarian partners have been delivering aid wherever they can.
“We have been able to get to hard-to-reach areas,” she said. “We’re able to move trucks from Port Sudan to Darfur, and this is through de-confliction, talking to the parties to the conflict, allowing us to move goods as we could.”
OCHA has facilitated the movement of some 780 trucks carrying 35,000 metric tons of relief supplies since fighting broke out in mid-April. “Each of these movements requires extensive painstaking negotiations to ensure that we don’t get more deaths of civilians or the 18 aid workers that have been killed so far,” she said.
People just want peace
Between April and June, humanitarians reached at least 2.5 million people. However, their target is 18 million, underscoring the need for greater financial support and fewer bureaucratic impediments. A $2.6 billion appeal for Sudan is just a quarter funded, or $625 million. UNICEF alone urgently needs $400 million to continue operations over the next 100 days.
“Overall, I think the message is that we can’t accept the toll that this war is taking on Sudan’s children, their families and the future,” said Mr. Chaiban.
He added that their message to the warring parties is also clear: stop fighting and commit to a durable cessation of hostilities, protect civilians, prevent grave violations against children, and ensure humanitarians can safely reach people in need.
“There are talks in Jeddah underway; there are other negotiating processes that we hope and urge can make urgent progress in this regard,” he said.
Ms. Wosornu underlined the need for unhindered and unconditional humanitarian access. “Everyone I spoke to, some people said ‘I don’t want food. I don’t want water. I just want peace. I want to go home.’ So, this is the message to parties to the conflict as well.”
FAO said 20.3 million individuals in Sudan face severe hunger, a figure that has nearly doubled since last year.
Projections indicate that 42 per cent of the population endures high levels of acute food insecurity, exacerbated by disruptions in the market and skyrocketing food prices, which hinder access to essential goods and services.
According to the latest Integrated Food Security Phases analysis, the common standards for classifying food severity, the situation is critical with 14 million people facing ‘crisis’ and more than six million people, around 13 per cent of the population, are now one step away from famine.
The regions most severely impacted include Khartoum, South and West Kordofan, as well as Central, East, South and West Darfur.
‘Unimaginable suffering’
Abdulhakim Elwaer, FAO’s Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for the Near East and North Africa, said “The conflict has had devastating consequences on the food and nutrition security and well-being of millions of people. Families are facing unimaginable suffering.”
The displacement of over four million people due to ongoing fighting has also resulted in critical infrastructure damage, further exacerbating food insecurity and malnutrition.
FAO warned that insufficient resources continue to impede humanitarian efforts to address the situation.
Funding shortfall
The UN agency has urgently appealed for an additional $65 million in funding to assist over six million people and support farmers in preparing for the upcoming planting season.
The UN food agency expressed concern at the the projections for the period from October 2023 to February 2024 – with around 15 million people likely to face a food crisis.
“It is vital that FAO is stepping in to support more than one million farmers this season to produce enough food for Sudanese people,” said Mr. Elwaer.
Since mid-April, the conflict between Sudan’s armed forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has caused displacement, death, injury and an unfolding humanitarian crisis. This week, UN agencies confirmed that over four million people have been displaced due to the conflict, the majority of which within Sudan itself.
The UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, on Wednesday warned that hunger and displacement due to the war are spiraling out of control.
Globally, over 250 million people suffered acute hunger in 2022, the highest in recent years, with about 376,000 people facing famine-like conditions in seven countries – all affected by armed conflict or extreme levels of violence. Another 35 million people are on the edge, Reena Ghelani said.
“Armed conflict destroys food systems, shatters livelihoods and drives people from their homes, leaving many extremely vulnerable and hungry. Sometimes these impacts are by-products of war, but all too often they are inflicted deliberately and unlawfully – with hunger utilized as a tactic of war,” she said.
Ms. Ghelani added that food insecurity itself also fuels instability, citing research that shows how food insecurity, when coupled with pre-existing grievances, poverty and inequality, causes people to choose violence over peace.
“It is the straw that breaks the camel’s back, leading to conflict,” she said.
Humanitarians under attack
Those helping people and providing assistance to stave off famine are also not spared by the fighting, Ms. Ghelani noted further.
Hundreds of humanitarians are killed, injured and kidnapped in conflict situations every year, and aid facilities and supplies are often attacked, looted or used for military purposes.
“The difficulties the United Nations, NGOs, and its partners are facing in Sudan is a stark example,” Ms. Ghelani said, offering condolences to the families of the 11 humanitarian workers killed there in recent weeks.
Climate change a threat multiplier
Climate change and economic shocks further compound the crisis.
“Climate change is increasingly becoming a threat multiplier,” Ms. Ghelani added, with stress over water and other natural resources leading to competition over dwindling natural resources, displacement, and, ultimately, conflicts and hunger.
At the same time, insecurity in conflict-affected countries hinders climate adaptation efforts.
“This leaves already vulnerable communities even poorer, hungrier and less resilient,” she said.
With key steps, progress is possible
Ms. Ghelani emphasized that despite overwhelming challenges, progress is possible, and outlined key steps that must be taken to address the crisis.
These include ensuring parties to conflicts respect international humanitarian law, especially protecting food and water systems and facilitating unimpeded humanitarian access.
She also urged better use of early warning systems, with effective follow-up; adequate humanitarian funding; and being bold and creative in finding ways to mitigate the impact of war on the most vulnerable.
At the same time, women and girls must be at the centre of our efforts, Ms. Ghelani said.
“Crises and hunger affect them disproportionately, and they also hold the key to lasting solutions. Research shows that involving local women in peacebuilding increases the probability that violence will end by 24 per cent,” she highlighted.
‘Eerie silence is deafening’
In conclusion, Ms. Ghelani recounted a personal experience where she visited communities teetering on the brink of famine.
“I have sat with mothers in too many nutrition wards, in too many displaced camps. And as their small children fought for their lives, they were too weak to cry, even make a sound […] that eerie silence is deafening. It never leaves you,” she said.
During a three-day visit to the country, Qu Dongyu, Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO); Cindy McCain, Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP); and Alvaro Lario, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) witnessed the devastating effects of severe weather events and a lack of infrastructure on communities.
“Conflict, climate change, and soaring costs in South Sudan are causing some of the highest levels of hunger in the world,” said Ms. McCain.
She added that just handing out food is not the solution.
“We must break the cycle and empower communities to plant the seeds of hope, opportunity, and economic development. With peace and stability, the potential of South Sudan is incredible,” she stressed.
The visit comes after a joint UN report on the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2023, which found that over 120 million more people are suffering chronic malnourishment since 2019.
Potential breadbasket of east Africa
South Sudan offers huge potential as a major food producing country, but years of conflict, compounded by climate change, poor infrastructure, low education and high unemployment, stymie any progress, according to FAO.
“South Sudan has the potential to be the breadbasket of East Africa, but the climate crisis, poor agriculture infrastructure, instability, and economic shocks continue to disrupt agricultural and livestock productivity and food availability,” said Mr. Qu, noting the importance of new funding.
“Investments and enabling policies that will improve on longer term food security, resilience and climate adaptation are urgently needed,” he added.
Massive investments needed
Collaboration among the three UN agencies and with the Government and other partners in the country have helped stave off famine in recent years and enabled farmers to increase their food production and incomes.
However, scaled-up and sustained action is needed to respond to the ongoing hunger crisis, avoid further setbacks, and mitigate future crises, the agencies said.
“To do this we need to mobilize massive investments and implement best practices to combat food insecurity and adapt to climate change. This will also greatly improve rural employment. But we need to act now,” said Mr. Lario.
Denise Brown, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine, spoke remotely at a press briefing at UN Headquarters, in New York, and said that funds are needed particularly to prepare for the approaching winter.
“It is almost August, and it gets cold very early in Ukraine,” she said.
She said that humanitarians are preparing for winterization, which involves distributing quilts, fuels, stoves, and thermal insulation – to houses damaged last winter.
“There is additional damage on top of what we had to deal [with since then],” she added, referring to increased needs resulting from the destruction of the Kakhovka dam and attacks on major cities.
Attacks on civilian infrastructure in Odesa
Ms. Brown spoke of her visit to Odesa, where several locations were hit in aerial strikes last week.
“Odesa is a very important hub for the UN and the humanitarian community,” she said, noting that it is the staging area for relief supplies to flow to the locations in need.
She went to the Transfiguration Cathedral, a centuries-old monument listed under UN cultural agency (UNESCO)’s World Heritage List, that sustained severe damage in an attack on 23 July.
The cathedral has a bunker and when air-raid sirens went off, many people from the neighbourhood took shelter there “not realizing that the cathedral was going to be hit,” said Ms. Brown.
The UN official also visited Odesa port, which was damaged in a strike. The attack took place after Russia terminated its engagement with the Black Sea Initiative, which together with a parallel accord between the UN and Russia, were vital to shore up food supplies globally.
“The port is a civilian infrastructure, that is the important point. Whether it is the cathedral or the port, this is civilian infrastructure used for civilians and civilian purposes,” she said
Damaged homes in Mykolaiv
Ms. Brown also spoke of damage to civilian homes and apartments in Mykolaiv, some of which were so badly damaged that they will have to be completely pulled down.
“What I saw in Mykolaiv and what I saw in Odesa last week, with my own eyes, is being repeated across many big cities in Ukraine. This morning again an apartment building was hit, people have been killed and are under rubble,” she said, recalling her statement earlier in the day.
Humanitarian plan only 30 per cent funded
Earlier this year, the UN launched the $3.9 billion Humanitarian Response Plan for 2023. The Plan targets 11.1 million people for assistance.
The needs continue to rise, Ms. Brown said, citing the “totally unexpected” destruction of the Kakhovka dam that led to additional needs.
“Humanitarian situation hasn’t changed, the war continues, and it intensifies, and so do the needs. The only way to change this is for the war to stop,” she concluded.
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