Sudan: Access to stricken Zamzam camp ‘is nearly impossible’
Civilians sheltering in the vast Zamzam displacement camp in Sudan’s North Darfur region are now “nearly impossible” to reach because of the ongoing war, the UN’s top aid official in the country warned on Thursday.
The camp is around 15 kilometres south of El Fasher town, the capital of North Darfur, which has been besieged by militia forces opposing the Government in Khartoum for months.
In an alert, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, said that civilians continue to pay the price for nearly two years of heavy fighting between the Sudanese military and opposition forces that erupted just as the country was expected to transition to civilian rule.
Just last week, the UN World Food Programme reported that children were already dying in Zamzam camp and that thousands could starve in the coming weeks, after it was forced to pause aid distribution because of heavy shelling.
UN emergency aid fund releases $110 million for neglected humanitarian crises
Amid deep cuts to global humanitarian funding, the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund, CERF, on Thursday allocated $110 million to neglected crises across Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The UN’s top aid official, Tom Fletcher, said that more than 300 million people urgently need assistance.
But funding has been falling annually, and this year’s levels are projected to drop to a record low:
“This is a very tough time to be humanitarian right now, but it’s a much tougher time for the communities that we serve. We have to ensure that as many of them survive these aid cuts as possible…we’ll need to regroup around the driving mission of saving as many lives as possible.”
One third of the CERF money will support Sudan and neighbouring Chad, which is home to many uprooted Sudanese.
The funds will also bolster the aid response in Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, Honduras, Mauritania, Niger, Somalia, Venezuela and Zambia.
Part of the allocation will go towards lifesaving initiatives to protect vulnerable people from climate shocks, too.
Climate change: La Niña fades, as global heat keeps rising
The weak but significant La Niña weather event that began in December is likely to be brief, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) says.
La Niña, a natural climate phenomenon, results in cooler Pacific Ocean temperatures that influence weather conditions worldwide, as opposed to El Niño, which causes warmer ocean conditions.
The latest forecasts from WMO indicate that sea surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific are expected to return to normal.
The agency says that there is a 60 per cent chance that conditions will shift back to what scientists call a neutral temperature range from March to May 2025.
With more on the importance of these WMO forecasts, here’s the agency’s spokesperson Clare Nullis.
“They’re one of a wide suite of services offered by the World Meteorological Organization and its members to support decision-making. Over the years, these forecasts translate into literally millions of dollars-worth in economic savings for key sectors like agriculture, energy and transport; they’ve supported health and water management and have saved thousands of lives over the years by enabling disaster risk preparedness.”
Clare Nullis from the UN agency WMO there, ending that item.
Daniel Johnson, UN News
Music composed and produced by Joachim Harris. All rights reserved.
Source of original article: United Nations (news.un.org). Photo credit: UN. The content of this article does not necessarily reflect the views or opinion of Global Diaspora News (www.globaldiasporanews.com).
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