UNICEF says Sudan's future depends on a ceasefire

UNICEF Representative to Sudan Sheldon Yett today (8 Aug) said the country is experiencing a “child protection emergency,” and stressed that “the future of Sudan depends on a ceasefire.”

In an interview with UN News from Port Sudan, Yett said the famine declaration in Camp Zamzam in northern Darfur by the Famine Review Committee (FRC) “is no small thing.”

He said, “this is only the third time in some 20 years that this level of acute food insecurity has been declared. It means that children are desperate. It means that inhabitants are desperate. It means that we have an extremely alarming situation on the ground.”

The UNICEF official said Zamzam Camp is just “a canary in a coal mine,” and “the indication of terrible things that are happening there, terrible food insecurity.”

He said UNICEF is “bringing in supplies for severe acute malnutrition” and “ensuring that they're getting to where they need to go,” which is “extremely, extremely difficult to do so.”

Yett said, “the war is ongoing There are access constraints. It is difficult to get a truck in. There are constantly new permits, bandits on the road, shooting, insecurity, extremely, extremely difficult. And unless we have peace, unless we have ceasefires, unless we've got agreements for safe access, I expect the situation to get worse.”

He said, “we're working every possible angle. And we're constantly in touch with all parties to ensure that food can go through. It isn't easy. It takes constant work. Food is going, but not enough. It's clear that far more work needs to be done. And frankly, unless we have security, it's hard to see how we're going to get the quantities that are required to this population.”

Noting that “there are some 18 million children at least who are out of school, Yett said, “we’re working to ensure that communities have access to education. Just this morning, I went to a camp right outside of Port Sudan, where I saw students having access to remote education. And I think it's important to remember that education and schools are not just about formal book learning. It provides a location, a sense of normalcy for children, a place for them to meet with their friends, their peers, to feel at home. It's really critical that we get schools up and running, that we get them open, that schools are actually used for education.”

As the rainy season approaches, he said, “I just met with the Minister of Health about an hour ago to talk about how we can do a vaccination campaign for cholera. Of course, there are other diseases as well. Malaria, too, is an issue when it comes to the rains. We're working with our partners and with the government here to get bed nets, to get anti-malarial drugs, to ensure that children in particular are safe, but everybody is safe from malaria. One of the ironies of this conflict is that people are moving from areas that were relatively free of malaria, like Khartoum, to areas that have far more malaria. So, I'm afraid that with this rainy season, we're going to have far more cases than we've seen in the past.”

The UNICEF official said, “we've seen a five-fold increase in grave child rights violations, and we're trying to provide support to all children in this country. Support through community groups, support through religious groups, support through informal psychosocial care, support through every imaginable way.”

To conclude, he said, “when you have issues of malnutrition, when you have the stresses of lack of food, families often turn to negative coping mechanisms. Children are more likely to work as child labourers. They're more likely to marry early, to marry as children, which of course is completely unacceptable. And we're working to make sure that this doesn't happen. This is why, again, we need a holistic package here. It doesn't make any sense to just provide food to address food insecurity. You need to look at a whole package of services to look at all the issues that go wrong and all the issues that can happen to a child when stresses like this happen.”