"Tom Fletcher, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, who recently spent a week in Sudan's Darfur region, has called the area the "epicenter of suffering in the world right now." Speaking to host Ayesha Rascoe on Weekend Edition Sunday, Fletcher described his visit to Darfur. "You're going through checkpoint after checkpoint manned by child soldiers," he said. "You're meeting people who are starving, who've been displaced many times, victims of sexual violence, victims of horrible torture, brutality.""
"Fletcher explained that his organisation's work in Sudan is currently only "32% funded", leading to difficult decisions for aid workers on the ground. "We are making these brutal life-and-death choices every day about which lives to save, literally, which projects to cut, which projects to keep," he said. This year, the United States has cut back its foreign aid funding."
Darfur faces extreme humanitarian suffering, with checkpoints manned by child soldiers and civilians experiencing starvation, repeated displacement, sexual violence, torture, and brutality. Humanitarian response in Sudan is only about 32% funded, forcing aid workers to make brutal life-or-death choices about which projects and lives to prioritize. Reduced foreign aid has left agencies overwhelmed by hundreds of thousands fleeing, including mass displacement from el-Fasher. El-Fasher was captured by the Rapid Support Forces after an 18-month siege, leaving around 200,000 civilians trapped, evidence of systematic killings, thousands unaccounted for, and satellite imagery suggesting possible mass graves and fears of genocide.
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