More than 20.000 people have been killed in the conflict between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since April 2023, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Sunday.
Speaking at a press conference in Port Sudan during a two-day visit to the country, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated that an additional 10 million people have been internally displaced, with two million refugees fleeing to neighboring countries.
“The scale of the emergency is shocking, as are the insufficient actions being taken to de-escalate the conflict and address the suffering it causes,” he said.
Ghebreyesus highlighted that 70% of the country’s healthcare sector is no longer operational.
The WHO chief called on “the world to wake up and help Sudan emerge from the nightmare it is going through.”
On Saturday, Ghebreyesus reaffirmed WHO’s commitment to addressing Sudan’s urgent humanitarian and health crises, including insecurity, mass displacement, floods, famine, and disease outbreaks.