Ahead of the donors’ conference for Sudan in Berlin on Wednesday, German Red Cross President Hermann Gröhe painted a dismal picture of the situation in the African country. In an interview with the Funke media group’s newspapers, the president stated, “The humanitarian situation in Sudan is one of the worst globally, and this has been the case for several years. The suffering reported by our sister organization is unimaginable”. He noted that approximately 33 million people require humanitarian aid and around 13 million are displaced.
Referring to the Sudan conference, Gröhe added, “The people in Sudan do not only need more attention, as well as protection and security; more support is also urgently required. Therefore, we deeply regret that the halving of funds in the federal budget for humanitarian aid forces us to scale back our assistance even in this so crisis-stricken country”.
A statement from the German Red Cross indicated that three years after the conflict began, its consequences are visible and felt almost everywhere in the country. The German Red Cross is working closely with its sister organization, the Sudanese Red Crescent (SRC), which has already reached 8.3 million people with emergency aid. There is a critical shortage of adequate healthcare, emergency shelter, clean water, and food. Furthermore, 22 SRC staff members have died in the line of duty since the conflict began three years ago.
