The conflict in Sudan is "a war on people”, the head of an international medical charity said on Thursday, as one of the world's most devastating humanitarian crises approaches its third year.
Doctors without Borders (MSF) secretary general Christopher Lockyear told the UN Security Council that the unrelenting violence has uprooted millions and killed tens of thousands.
He told the council that the war in Sudan cannot continue to be waged with “shameless disregard for civilian lives”, and that the international response has been “far too limited” due to obstructions by the warring parties and a lack of accountability, resources and leadership.
“The Sudanese Armed Forces have repeatedly and indiscriminately bombed densely populated areas," Mr Lockyear said. "The Rapid Support Forces and allied militias have unleashed a campaign of brutality, marked by systematic sexual violence, abductions, mass killings, the looting of humanitarian aid and the occupation of medical facilities."
Sudan has been ravaged by conflict between the paramilitary RSF and the military since April 2023. It has displaced more than 12 million people, according to the UN.
The war, which was initially sparked by disagreements over the RSF's integration into the national army, has fragmented Sudan, with the SAF holding the east and north, and the RSF commanding western Darfur and the southern regions. Both factions have been accused of committing war crimes.
"While statements are made in this chamber, civilians remain unseen, unprotected, bombed, besieged, raped, displaced, deprived of food, of medical care, of dignity," Mr Lockyear said.
"The humanitarian response falters, crippled by bureaucracy, by insecurity, by hesitation and by what threatens to become the largest divestment in the history of humanitarian aid."
The violence led MSF last month to suspend all activities in the famine-stricken Zamzam camp for the internally displaced, which hosts about 500,000.
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