Sir, – On Wednesday we marked three years of war in Sudan. Three years of violence, death and displacement. Three years of suffering matched with three years of inaction. It is three years too long.
The numbers in Sudan are staggering. Since the war started more than 13 million people have been displaced – a quarter of the population. Nine million people are struggling to get food, and famine has been declared in a number of areas. There are 33 million people who need humanitarian assistance, more than two-thirds of the population.
Sudan is a microcosm of the issues facing the world today, a horrendous conflict that is destabilising a region. It comes against a backdrop of declining Official Development Assistance (ODA). New Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development figures show ODA globally is on a downward spiral with the biggest cut in a decade.
Overall, there has been a 9.9 per cent drop from European Union member states in the past year. At a time when humanitarian needs are escalating globally, the world is abandoning those most in need.
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Ireland is one of the few countries that increased its ODA last year. That is welcome. But we, and the EU member states, must do more to bring an end to the conflict in Sudan.
Last year in this publication I wrote that “an immediate and sustained ceasefire must be prioritised above all. UN member states must take urgent and meaningful measures to prevent external actors from funding the war and fuelling the conflict”.
That we must call for the same a year later shows the failure of the world to act. – Yours, etc,
JANE-ANN MCKENNA,
Chief executive,
Dóchas, the Irish Network of Humanitarian and Development Organisations,
Dublin 8.
