Hunger Threatens Half Sudanese Population, UN Plans to Offer Humanitarian Aid

Hunger threatens millions of Sudanese at home and abroad, at a time when the United Nations (UN) has recognized the urgent need to increase humanitarian aid in the country where about half Sudanese population must be aided urgently.

The United Nations agencies in Sudan said, during a meeting held Wednesday in the eastern port city of Port Sudan, that they are making joint efforts to expand humanitarian assistance to more than 3 million people displaced by the conflict, most of them women and children.

In the United Nations report issued in mid-July, it said that half of Sudan's population needs urgent humanitarian aid, especially the millions trapped in combat zones in Khartoum and the states of Darfur and Kordofan.

The ongoing battles between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the "Rapid Support Forces (RSF) impede the delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians, as they continue to lose the necessary services such as electricity and water supplies and health care, due to the suspension of more than half of the hospitals and service facilities.

According to United Nations statistics, supported by reports from the Sudanese Federal Ministry of Health, since the outbreak of fighting last April, more than 1,136 people have been killed and 120,000 injured until the beginning of this month.