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STORY: UN / SUDAN HUMANITARIAN SITUATION
TRT: 03:18
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: 06 AUGUST 2024, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations Headquarters
06 AUGUST 2024, NEW YORK CITY
2. Various shots, Security Council
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Edem Wosornu, Director of Operations and Advocacy, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“Our worst fears were confirmed last week: The Famine Review Committee concluded that famine conditions are present in Zamzam camp, close to El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur. This is the same camp that Médecins Sans Frontières warned about six months ago, where one child was dying every two hours from malnutrition. The Famine Review Committee also found that famine conditions are also likely present in other displacement camps in and around the city.”
4. Wide shot, Wosornu, addressing Council
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Edem Wosornu, Director of Operations and Advocacy, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“When famine happens, it means we are too late. It means we did not do enough. It means that we, the international community, have failed. This is an entirely man-made crisis – and a shameful stain on our collective conscience.”
6. Wide shot, Council
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Stephen Omollo, Assistant Executive Director for Workplace and Management, World Food Programme (WFP):
“We signalled that famine was imminent. We warned then that aid agencies were being blocked from accessing significant parts of the country with food and other essential supplies. But our warnings have not been heard. The Famine Review Committee, FRC, has concluded that there is famine in Zamzam camp, near El Fasher, in North Darfur.”
8. Med shot, delegates
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Stephen Omollo, Assistant Executive Director for Workplace and Management, World Food Programme (WFP):
“Over 750,000 people are currently classified as being in IPC phase 5 – they are experiencing catastrophic levels of food insecurity. An estimated 730,000 children are projected to suffer severe acute malnutrition this year, the most life-threatening form of malnutrition. This is the first time the Committee has confirmed a famine for more than seven years, and only the third time since the global monitoring system was launched 20 years ago.”
10. Wide shot, Sudan Ambassador Al-Harith Idriss al-Harith Mohamed addressing Council
11. Med shot, Wosornu
12. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Al-Harith Idriss al-Harith Mohamed, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Sudan:
“We have reiterated before and we have called upon the Security Council to condemn the countries that are providing weapons and logistical support to RSF by being a party to this conflict. This will lead to deterioration of the humanitarian situation. And some major countries have totally rejected to include in resolution 2736, a condemnation of RSF, and we also asked them to bring pressure to bear on those to remove the siege on other besieged towns in Darfur. And now you come and speak of famine. If there is a famine of the fifth phase, or even hundredth phase of IPC, we are ready to cooperate with you and we will open the crossings for any humanitarian assistance.”
13. Wide shot, end of Council session
Days after the Famine Review Committee concluded that famine conditions are present in Zamzam camp, close to El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, a top humanitarian official today (6 Aug) told the Security Council that “this is an entirely man-made crisis – and a shameful stain on our collective conscience.”
Edem Wosornu, who is OCHA’s Director of Operations and Advocacy at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told Council members that life-saving supplies in Port Sudan are ready to be loaded and dispatched to Zamzam, including essential medicines, nutritional supplies, water purification tablets and soap, but it is crucial that the approvals and security assurances needed are not delayed.
Wosornu said, “our worst fears were confirmed last week: The Famine Review Committee concluded that famine conditions are present in Zamzam camp, close to El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur. This is the same camp that Médecins Sans Frontières warned about six months ago, where one child was dying every two hours from malnutrition. The Famine Review Committee also found that famine conditions are also likely present in other displacement camps in and around the city.”
She said, “when famine happens, it means we are too late. It means we did not do enough. It means that we, the international community, have failed.”
For his part, the World Food Programme’s (WFP) Assistant Executive Director, Stephen Omollo reported that the Agency is significantly scaling-up operations across the country, and WFP will prioritize reaching people facing emergency and catastrophic levels of hunger along with those who have been internally displaced.
Omollo said, “we signalled that famine was imminent. We warned then that aid agencies were being blocked from accessing significant parts of the country with food and other essential supplies. But our warnings have not been heard. The Famine Review Committee, FRC, has concluded that there is famine in Zamzam camp, near El Fasher, in North Darfur.”
He told the Council that “over 750,000 people are currently classified as being in IPC phase 5 – they are experiencing catastrophic levels of food insecurity. An estimated 730,000 children are projected to suffer severe acute malnutrition this year, the most life-threatening form of malnutrition. This is the first time the Committee has confirmed a famine for more than seven years, and only the third time since the global monitoring system was launched 20 years ago.”
Both officials reiterated that the conflict must stop, and a ceasefire remains the only sustainable solution that will prevent the further spread of famine.
In his address to the Council, Sudanese Ambassador Al-Harith Idriss al-Harith Mohamed said, “we have reiterated before and we have called upon the Security Council to condemn the countries that are providing weapons and logistical support to RSF by being a party to this conflict,” which would lead to a deterioration of the humanitarian situation.
Mohamed said, “some major countries have totally rejected to include in resolution 2736, a condemnation of RSF, and we also asked them to bring pressure to bear on those to remove the siege on other besieged towns in Darfur. And now you come and speak of famine. If there is a famine of the fifth phase, or even hundredth phase of IPC, we are ready to cooperate with you and we will open the crossings for any humanitarian assistance.”
