Geneva — Fifteen months of conflict in Sudan has claimed 19,000 lives and left 33,000 injured, severely constraining health access, but the Democratic Republic of Congo has the most people needing humanitarian aid globally, the World Health Organization said Friday.
“The DRC now has the highest number of people in need of humanitarian aid in the world, with 25.4 million people affected. Despite this, it remains one of the most underfunded crises,” Dr Adelheid Marschang, WHO’s senior emergency officer, said at a UN press conference.
She said that around 7.4 million people are displaced, with 2.8 million in North Kivu alone.
“These mass movements of people overwhelm water and sanitation systems and bring an additional burden on the population’s scarce resources,” said Marschang.
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“As a result, people are facing outbreaks of cholera, measles, meningitis, mpox and plague, all exacerbated by severe flooding and landslides affecting some parts of the country.”
In Sudan this year so far, over 20,000 cases of cholera and close to 60,000 cases of measles have been reported, with numbers likely to be higher due to limited disease surveillance and data reporting.
Shortage of medicines
The day before, WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists this was due to insecurity and shortages of medicines, medical supplies, and health workers.
“Almost 15 million people need urgent health assistance, including maternal and newborn care, treatment for cancer, diabetes, and other noncommunicable diseases, and protection from outbreaks of cholera, measles, malaria, dengue, meningitis, and more,” said Tedros.
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He warned that the risk of famine is growing, with more than half of Sudan’s population facing crisis levels of food insecurity or worse.
WHO recently distributed three metric tons of pre-positioned supplies to meet the population’s critical needs in North Darfur.
“We call on both sides to the conflict to facilitate assistance for those in need. Opening the Adré crossing from Chad into western Darfur is absolutely vital for scaling up assistance,” said the WHO chief.=
Renewed fighting has forced even more people to flee.
Displaced numbers jump
In the past three months, the number of displaced people in Sudan has leaped by more than 45 percent to 12.7 million, including 10.5 million displaced internally and 2.2 million who have sought refuge in neighboring countries.
“In Chad, most arrive after multiple displacements, suffering gunshot wounds, many having survived rape and sexual violence, without sufficient food for months, and having walked for days,” said Tedros.
Tedros cautioned that despite the increasing health needs in both Chad and Sudan, WHO has only 18 percent of the funds needed,
Mpox remains a global health threat, with 26 countries reporting cases to WHO this month.
The outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo shows no sign of slowing, with more than 11,000 cases reported this year and 445 deaths, with children the most affected.
South Africa has recently reported 20 cases of mpox to WHO, including three deaths, the first cases in that country since 2022.
