Guterres issues a warning - crisis | Sudan | warning
According to Agence France Presse, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres stated on June 19 that Sudan is sinking into the abyss of death and destruction at an unprecedented pace.
According to reports, Guterres said at a fundraising conference jointly organized by the United Nations with Egypt, Germany, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the African Union, and the European Union, "The scale and speed of Sudan's death and destruction are unprecedented."
He said, "Without strong support from the international community, Sudan may soon become an lawless place, spreading insecurity to various parts of the region."
On April 15th, an armed conflict broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Force. The armed conflict began in the southern suburbs of Khartoum and quickly spread to the entire city and other states.
The United Nations has issued two fundraising appeals to address this crisis - humanitarian aid within Sudan and refugee aid outside Sudan. These two appeals require raising $3 billion, but so far less than 17% of the funds have been raised.
The report points out that the response of the international community to the crisis in Sudan is not as rapid as that of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. It has been more than two months since the crisis broke out.
The fundraising conference was mainly conducted through video conferencing, aiming to inject some vitality into the fundraising call for the Sudan crisis.
Guterres said, "The situation in Darfur and Khartoum is catastrophic. The fighting is raging, and people are being attacked at home and on the streets."
He said, "In just over two months, 2 million people have been forced to leave their homes and seek refuge in safer areas of Sudan or across the border. Nearly 500000 people have crossed the border into neighboring countries."
Guterres also said, "Prior to the outbreak of this conflict, Sudan was already working hard to respond to the humanitarian crisis. Now this has escalated into a disaster that affects more than half of Sudan's citizens. We must prevent the situation from deteriorating further, which is important."
According to reports, this conflict has resulted in over 2000 deaths.