To prevent these worst-case scenarios, we, the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Principals, urgently request the parties to the conflict to do the following:
Take immediate measures to protect civilians, including by refraining from directing attacks against them, allowing them to leave for safer areas, and ending sexual and gender-based violence. Facilitate unimpeded humanitarian access through all possible crossline and cross-border routes to allow civilians to receive humanitarian aid. Immediately cease all acts denying, obstructing and interfering with, or politicizing, humanitarian action. Simplify and expedite administrative and bureaucratic procedures related to the delivery of humanitarian aid. De-escalate the situation in Al Fasher and adopt a nationwide ceasefire. Stop human rights violations, including grave violations against children, and hold perpetrators accountable for their crimes.
We are also concerned by the limited support from donors. Nearly five months into the year – and six weeks after the International Humanitarian Conference for Sudan and its Neighbours in Paris on 15 April – we’ve received just 16 per cent of the $2.7 billion we need.
Donors must urgently disburse pledges made in Paris and fast-track additional funding for the humanitarian appeal. With a famine on the horizon, we must deliver much more life-saving aid now, including seeds for farmers before the planting season ends.
The clock is ticking. The choice is clear.