The Qatari government today announced an airlift with food and medicine to Sudan, while calling for humanitarian corridors and efforts for a ceasefire in the Sudanese civil war, which has left nearly 14,000 dead and millions displaced in less than a year.
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The airlift, expected to last the whole month of Ramadan, "will transport food, tents and ambulances", said in his account of X the Qatari Minister of Cooperation, Lolwah al Jater, who visited the city of Port Sudan today, in the Red Sea, to "remember the world (...) of the devastating human tragedy" of the African country.
Lolwah al-Jater called on the parties to the conflict, the Sudanese Army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (FAR), "ensure safe humanitarian corridors" and "stop attacking food and medicine supply chains".
António Guterres, UN Secretary General, described the conflict in Sudan as a "forgotten war", and said that about 25 million people, half the population of the country, need vital humanitarian assistance, and 18 million of which also suffer "acute food insecurity".
On the other hand, the Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme, Cindy McCain, also warned on Wednesday that the war in Sudan is at risk of becoming the world’s largest famine crisis.
As a result of this conflict, the largest number of displaced persons in the world is now Sudanese: 6.3 million people are internally displaced, adding to the 1.7 million citizens who have fled to neighbouring countries, and some 13,900 people have died in the war in Sudan since the beginning of the conflict on 15 April 2023, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).