.jpeg?width=1200&auto=webp&trim=41%2C0%2C42%2C0&ssl=1 "Plea for Sudan aid from UK as civil war rages: ‘Why is nobody watching?’")
In Sudan, we have the problem of the dead body,” says Aida Elsayed. The secretary general of the Sudanese Red Crescent Society (SRCS) is relaying how her volunteers entered an area in Khartoum and found bodies of people who had been thrown into water wells – a grim reminder of the war that has gripped the country.
The “mass grave” where bodies had been disposed of, and some had been left to die, had rendered the local water source undrinkable.
Elsayed can’t understand why the whole world isn’t paying attention.
She is in the UK urging MPs and government officials to remember her home country, as they finalise the foreign aid allocations for this year.
Since war broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the country has spiralled into one of the world’s most acute humanitarian emergencies. More 25 million people face severe hunger and 12 million have been forced from their homes.
The Sudanese Red Crescent – the local branch of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies of which the British Red Cross is also part – remains one of the only humanitarian organisations on the ground.
“Sudan, it is a forgotten crisis,” she says, “Nobody mentions it, nobody talks about it.”
Also, as global aid has been shrinking, Sudan has been hit by shortages of essential supplies.
Having cut the UK’s overall aid budget by 40 per cent, the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is set to publish more details about where the remaining funds will be allocated later this month. The government already announced a £120m package of humanitarian aid for Sudan this year and has named the country as one of its funding priorities.
The SRCS says it has only raised 30 per cent of what it needs for the year ahead.
The most urgent needs to be paid for are food and basic medicine.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) and World Food Programme, which provide many of these essentials, are both facing significant pressure on their budgets after the withdrawal of the US from global aid.
The WHO says more than half of health programmes in Sudan are at risk, covering roughly 355 health facilities.
Meanwhile, the World Food Programme is facing a shortfall of £625 million across the next six months, and is facing having to reduce the numbers of people helped or the amount of food given.
