WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called Wednesday on the international community not to ignore the country, which has 10 million internally displaced people and another two million in neighboring countries.

During his weekly press conference, the head of the health agency lamented how the world has decided to forget the complex situation in Sudan, while recalling that 70 percent of its hospitals are not functioning due to the hostilities, and those that are overwhelmed by the number of people seeking help.

“People are dying for lack of access to essential health services and medicines, and there is a very real risk of mass starvation in some regions,” Tedros asserted.

Critical services such as pediatrics and maternity wards are operating intermittently in many areas, and telecommunications problems affect both the monitoring of epidemics and the verification of attacks on health infrastructure, he added.

However, WHO staff are still operating in the country, distributing medicines and medical equipment in areas where they can still reach, and even sending aid to regions where fighting is ongoing, such as Darfur and Kordofan.

The conflict in Sudan began in mid-April 2023 with clashes between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Reaction Forces.

In fact, it is one of the nations hardest hit not only by armed conflict, but also by long droughts and heavy rainfalls, facing an adverse climate.

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