CAIRO (AP) — A senior United Nations official on Friday called for more international attention to “the forgotten crisis” in Sudan , where more than a year and a half of war pushed the African country to the brink of famine. The appeal by Ted Chaiban, deputy head of the U.N.
children's agency UNICEF, came as the notorious paramilitary Rapid Support Forces rampaged through villages and towns in east-central Gezira province, looting and vandalizing public and private properties, according to a doctors’ union and a youth group. Dozens of people were reported killed. Chaiban said the war, which erupted in April 2023 between the military and the RSF, created “one of the most acute crises in living memory” with more than 14 million people forced to flee their homes, making Sudan the world’s largest displacement crisis.
“We’ve never in a generation seen these types of numbers,” he told The Associated Press in an interview, referring to the displaced people, as well as the 8.5 million people who are facing emergency levels of food insecurity, and 775,000 others who are facing famine-like conditions. “The whole country has been dislocated,” he said.
“And yet, despite that, the country and the crisis is forgotten.” The war came four years after a pro-democracy uprising forced the military’s ouster of the country’s longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir that was followed by a short-lived transition to democracy. It has killed more than 24,000 people so far, acc.
