NRC calls for 'diplomatic pressure on warring parties' to avert spread of famine across Sudan

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00:00Russia vetoed a UN resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Sudan and the delivery

00:07of humanitarian aid to millions of people there. Sudan was plunged into a devastating conflict in

00:13April last year when long-simmering tensions between the military and a militia called the

00:19Rapid Support Forces erupted. The fighting has killed at least 61,000 people, although the

00:26true toll is thought to be far higher. Millions more Sudanese have been displaced and some

00:33are facing famine. While that UN resolution was sponsored by Sierra Leone and by the

00:39United Kingdom, here's the UK's foreign minister on the Russian veto.

00:46Mean, nasty and cynical, Russia's veto today sends a message to the warring parties that

00:53they can now act with impunity, that they can ignore their commitments and responsibilities

00:58to protect their own people. Let me be clear, I will not stop calling for more action to protect

01:05the people of Sudan. I will not stop calling for more aid. I will not stop working with our partners

01:13in Africa and around the world to help. Well, let's take a closer look now on the

01:18programme then at the situation in Sudan and I'm very pleased to be joined live by

01:23Mathilde Vu. She is a Sudan advocacy manager at the Norwegian Refugee Council and she joins us

01:30now from Port Sudan, which is in the east of the country. Hello to you and thanks for joining us.

01:37Hi, good afternoon. Look, we are talking today, a day after that resolution calling for aid and a

01:44ceasefire to Sudan was vetoed by Russia. For your organisation, for the NRC, how important is it

01:52that a ceasefire is secured? I mean, what happened yesterday, this disagreement at the UN Security

02:00Council is really tragic, frankly, and I think it's really an illustration of the past 18 months

02:06of how the international community has just not managed to come together to end the suffering

02:13in Sudan. Of course, ceasefire is important and while the warring parties are not ready for one,

02:20what is even more important is that international humanitarian law, so the rule of war basically,

02:27are respected. So that means no attacks on civilians and ensuring that humanitarian

02:32assistance reach the people in need, which right now is not happening. So there's no ceasefire,

02:37not enough assistance and certainly zero protection for civilians right now in Sudan.

02:43Can you help us get a clearer picture then when we talk about this war and the impact it's having

02:50on civilians, particularly in terms of famine, hunger, acute malnutrition? We know that is

02:58something that is a problem really across Sudan right now, but our understanding is

03:03it's particularly acute in Darfur. It is, but actually not only. So Sudan is right now one

03:12of the largest hunger crises in the world. You have at least 25 million people who are hungry

03:17across Sudan, and yes, there are people who are in a situation of famine. Famine is very rare,

03:24you know. Over the past decades there's been very few famine declared and confirmed in this world.

03:28One of them right now is happening in one of the largest camp of Darfur. There are also people

03:33who are dying of hunger right now in the capital city of Sudan, Khartoum, that has been basically

03:40the theatre of terrible violence and conflict. And I would say another thing, it's not only

03:46a hunger crisis, but it's a displacement crisis. It's 11 million people who are displaced internally,

03:523 million people who are being forced to cross into neighbouring Chad, Egypt, Uganda,

04:00South Sudan and Ethiopia, and those people as well are in a terrible state. You mentioned Khartoum,

04:06the capital. I understand you were there yourself relatively recently. I mean,

04:10in terms of the conflict, what is Khartoum like right now, and how are civilians who are still

04:16there coping? So I haven't been back since the beginning of the war, but my colleagues have been,

04:23and what they're telling me is that you can't recognise Khartoum. Khartoum has been destroyed.

04:30You have a lot of places that have been, like, basically they are ghosted. You have an entire

04:36market in Ondormand that was so vibrant, that was really like the economic hub and heart of Khartoum

04:43that has been basically transformed into ashes. So it's been extremely difficult for people who

04:50were trapped in Khartoum, people who couldn't leave Khartoum because it was too dangerous or

04:55too costly to leave to even survive. And right now, also in the capital, there's people who just

05:01have access to nothing. And your organisation, NRC, has spoken in the past about the weaponisation

05:10of food by both sides, it's worth saying, in Sudan. Can you just spell out for us what you

05:15mean by that? Sure. I mean, you know, we can't really say what is the intention of, you know,

05:23the warring parties. But what we see is that some decisions have been made, and those decisions have

05:29led to the food insecurity that we're seeing today. And those decisions are waging a war in the middle

05:36of a capital, not taking, you know, precaution and distinction, and basically causing infrastructure,

05:44markets, trades, commerce, and so on to be destroyed, causing millions of people to flee.

05:50There's been attacks, terrible attacks by the RSF also on agriculture, lands, on farming,

05:58and so on. And finally, like one of the decisions that the warring parties have taken is also not

06:03to let humanitarian aid flow the way it should be. You know, there are cases of a siege right now in

06:11Al-Fasher by the RSF. There's been a lot of bureaucracy and blockage coming from the SAF as

06:17well from getting assistance into Sudan. All means that basically, aid is not reaching the people

06:25it needs to reach at the right time. And I suppose the question then is, look, Mathilde,

06:31what can be done? Is it feasible, for example, to try and set up some kind of humanitarian corridor,

06:38potentially via where you are in Port Sudan to bring in food that is clearly so desperately

06:45needed now? More than a corridor that is, you know, really a restrictive, let's say, pathway

06:53into areas that are suffering. I think there needs to be a lot of diplomatic discussion

07:01and pressure onto the warring parties to change the policies. It's on everybody's interest that

07:07people do not die of hunger in this war. They've suffered too much. And what really the international

07:14community should be doing is, you know, engaging with the SAF to say, how can we avert a famine to

07:21spread across Sudan and press the RSF to really, like, you know, free those trucks that are being

07:29stuck right now into the war and are not reaching, you know, places like Zamzam or Al-Fasher.

07:36Mathilde Vu talking to us live there from the Norwegian Refugee Council in Port Sudan.

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