We need to stop tiptoeing and start acting for humanity
19 August 2024Between stretched teams from a reduced workforce, attacks on humanitarian workers and assets, difficult negotiations and fear of government reprisals, humanitarian agencies are struggling to reach families in need notes Charles Businge, Director, sub-region of the Middle East, North and Horn of Africa for Plan International in this blog following his return from Sudan.
This year’s World Humanitarian Day theme is #ActForHumanity which is much needed to improve conditions for humanitarian workers who are facing compounding impediments, driving them further away from the people they are reaching to support.
I recently travelled to the Port of Sudan to meet with colleagues and stakeholders in the sector and a quick sense from my engagements was though committed, most humanitarian agencies and workers are stretched thin. The lack of humanitarian access that has severely restricted the capability of aid organisations to scale up their response efforts remains the biggest impediment. Aid organisations are also struggling with rising costs, bureaucratic challenges (including travel permits), and are facing difficult negotiations with warring parties, who refuse to heed to the humanitarian imperative. They are are operating in fear of being expelled for working outside set restrictions.
Failed talks, famine implications
Efforts to get a political settlement have failed repeatedly for months with mediators now negotiating for a humanitarian settlement at least, if only to guarantee the delivery of humanitarian assistance to all Sudanese people in need as well as exploring various approaches to protect civilians from the fighting. This hasn’t yielded results yet. Recent talks held in Geneva, at the invitation of the United Nations, to discuss the protection of civilians through possible local cease-fires, has failed to see a humanitarian agreement backed.
This lack of progress is devastating. Especially following the recent Famine Review Committee (FRC)’s conclusion that there is famine in Zamzam camp, Sudan’s largest internally displaced persons camp in North Darfur region. The camp is currently home to more than 400,000 displaced people. Alarmingly, this is the first determination of famine by the Committee in more than 7 years, and only the third time a famine determination has been made since the monitoring system was created 20 years ago. The FRC has gone on to further warn that other parts of Sudan risk famine if concerted action is not taken.
Sadly, this is what we have feared for months and tried to mitigate but our hands have remained tied and with no end in sight, we are worried that the situation is only going to get worse, with the people of Sudan paying for this with their lives. A scary reality that is like none before, because unlike the Darfur crisis of twenty years ago, this conflict-fuelled hunger crisis spans the whole country including the capital Khartoum and also Jazirah State, previously Sudan’s breadbasket.
Allow humanitarian action to halt famine
Severely restricted humanitarian access is one of the main drivers of the famine conditions in Zamzam camp. We are struggling to reach people in need, taking longer routes, for example which increases risks for us. It is also becoming difficult to assess the full extent of the situation in Sudan with regard to available food and livelihood changes. We are thus unable to fully respond to needs we are unsure of.
We refuse to relent in our calls to the warring parties to open up safe routes for humanitarian and commercial convoys towards the most critical IDP/refugee settlements, and urban centres in Greater Darfur and Greater Kordofan states. We are also calling for unhindered access through all the Chad-Sudan and South Sudan-Sudan border crossings for large-scale humanitarian assistance and commercial deliveries.We need the creation of a safe airspace, enabling the resumption of operations through the international airports of El Fasher and Nyala for the delivery of medical supplies, non-food items and emergency therapeutic foods.
And of course we urgently need to see an immediate stop to any attacks on hospitals, humanitarian organisations, and civilian infrastructure in accordance with the International Humanitarian Law, and to ensure the full delivery of services to mitigate the likelihood and severity of famine. They also need to restore the functionality of banking systems and re-establish telecommunication networks.
It’s business unusual, agility is required
It’s clear that currently no individual organisation can reach out to the people most in need at scale, which means that it is important to engage in different partnerships with different levels of organisations including local structures of communities, like protection committees, to enhance collaboration efforts to be able to reach most in need.
There is also a need to mobilise more resources, owing to the increase in humanitarian needs and complexities as well as to be adaptive because of the growing cost of doing business.
Living in hope
As we continue advocating for unfettered access, we also want to make sure communities live on hope and not create a situation of people believing that they have lost everything. We are working to encourage more of our communities in need to build their resilience efforts so that they can be able to go through the growing and complex situation, calling on the warrying parties to #ActForHumanity and for the world to #KeepEyesonSudan.
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