The Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Wednesday said the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is deeply alarmed by reports of deadly drone strikes in Kadugli, the capital of Sudan’s South Kordofan State.
Stéphane Dujarric, while briefing the press in New York, said that the Sudan Doctors Network reported that at least 15 civilians, including seven children, were killed on Tuesday when residential neighborhoods were hit. Medical sources indicate that a health centre was also struck while patients were receiving treatment.
“OCHA notes that this follows a series of attacks on the city this week on civilian areas and medical facilities, which have reportedly caused further civilian casualties and significantly degraded already fragile health services,” he said. “Local sources report that more than half of Kadugli’s medical facilities are no longer functioning after months of siege conditions, of shelling and severe shortages.”
According to Dujarric, these incidents come amid a rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation in the area.
“Famine conditions have been identified in the city, food prices have surged, and malnutrition, as a result, is increasing. Key humanitarian supply routes into the city remain unavailable to us,” he said. “The UN reiterates that civilians, medical facilities, and humanitarian workers must be protected at all times and must never be targeted. Rapid, safe, unhindered, and sustained humanitarian access must be ensured so assistance can reach all those who so desperately need it.”
“This week, our Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, Denise Brown, met with displaced families at Al Afad camp in the city of Ad Dabbah in Northern State, where she heard consistent accounts of extreme violence, fear, and loss after more than 1,000 days of war in Sudan,” Dujarric added.
He said that OCHA reiterates its call for an end to violence and additional funding to scale up life-saving assistance.
“This year’s humanitarian response plan calls for $2.9 billion to reach more than 20 million people, or two out of every five people, in need in the country,” he concluded.