Those fleeing the fighting include Sudanese refugees as well as people who were themselves refugees in Sudan. UNHCR estimates that the number of refugees and returnees may rise to over 800,000.

UNHCR spokesperson, Olga Sarrado, told journalists in Geneva that many of the seven neighbouring countries are already hosting large refugee, and internally displaced populations.

“The majority remain severely underfunded. Asylum countries will need additional support to provide protection and assistance. Among the urgent needs are water, food, shelter, healthcare, relief items, gender-based violence response and prevention, and child protection services.”

WHO warns of many more deaths

With civilians continuing to be caught in the crossfire between the warring militaries – with much of the fighting taking place in urban areas – the World Health Organization (WHO) is warning that “many will die” due to lack of essential services, as well as disease outbreaks, said UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq, at the regular briefing in New York on Tuesday.

“Medical stockpiles are running critically low in areas ravaged by the fighting – including in the capital Khartoum, and West and Central Darfur. And the prices of basic commodities, from fuel to food staples and bottled water, has risen by 40 to 60 per cent or more in some areas.”

More than 330,000 displaced

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that more than 334,000 people have been displaced inside Sudan, since the conflict between the national armed forces of Sudan’s ruling general, and that of his deputy’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia, erupted more than two weeks ago.  

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has provided critical water, sanitation and hygiene support to six hospitals in Khartoum, as well as water trucking to a hospital in North Darfur, continued Mr. Haq. The agency has also directed health and nutrition kits to health centres in the state capital, El Fasher.

The Deputy Spokesperson said that in Chad and Sudan, the UN planned to bring in roughly 70,000 core relief items, from global stockpiles.

“And in Egypt, UNHCR and other UN agencies are conducting a mission to assess the needs of people coming from Sudan. The UN and Egyptian Red Crescent are delivering water, food, wheelchairs, and hygiene and sanitary kits to new arrivals”, he added. 

Interagency response plan

UNHCR plans to launch an interagency regional refugee response plan to address urgent financial needs, as soon as possible. 

Meanwhile, in an appeal to donors, the UN humanitarian affairs office (OCHA) said on Tuesday that aid agencies and partners are facing a huge funding gap of $1.5 billion for the Sudan response.

Read our explainer here, on how Sudan ended up on the brink of humanitarian catastrophe today.

The UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, is in the region and due to be in the UN humanitarian hub of Port Sudan, shortly.

Senior humanitarians are temporarily based in the Sudanese city on the Red Sea coast, after relocating from the capital Khartoum, pledging to remain and rebuild the UN aid effort to serve the millions of Sudanese in need.

People displaced by violence in Sudan continue to arrive in Chad.

Supporting women: UN News interview

In an in-depth interview with UN News, the Sudan Representative for UN Women, Adjaratou Fatou Ndiaye, said that they were providing financial and technical support to young Sudanese women, who are using app technology to keep themselves safe, and track the availability of food and medicine, along with finding safe routes away from the fighting. 

She said the UN was tracking cases and allegations of gender-based violence, working closely with the UN rights office OHCHR, and taking measures to support victims and ultimately, bring perpetrators to account. 

She said after five years living in Sudan, she felt strongly that the Sudanese “deserve a peaceful country. They deserve development. They deserve safety.” Listen to the full interview here:

Secretary-General António Guterres was speaking to reporters in Doha, Qatar, after convening an international meeting of Special Envoys on Afghanistan.

He said they had agreed on the need for a “strategy of engagement” with the Taliban, to help the country’s most vulnerable people.

No question of Taliban recognition

Mr. Guterres made clear that the gathering had not focussed on recognition of the de facto authorities, but rather on developing a common, international approach to burning interlinked issues, such as terrorism, the crackdown on human rights, and the spread of drug trafficking.

“To achieve our objectives, we cannot disengage”, he said. “Many called for engagement to be more effective and based on lessons which we have learned from the past. The UN will continue to use its convening power to advance a forward-leaning approach, which puts the Afghan people first, and in a manner that is complementary to existing regional platforms and initiatives.”

The UN chief said the current ban introduced last month by Taliban leaders on Afghan women working for the UN – following on from a ban on them working for national and international NGOs “is unacceptable and puts lives in jeopardy.

 “Let me be crystal clear: we will never be silent in the face of unprecedented, systemic attacks on women and girls’ rights. We will always speak out when millions of women and girls are being silenced and erased from sight.”

Collective interest

He said the envoys, which included UN Special Envoy, Roza Otunbayeva, had agreed it was important to “understand each other’s concerns and limitations, but agreed that it was in everyone’s interest, foremost the Afghans, to work together.”

They reached agreement on “the need for a strategy of engagement that allows for the stabilization of Afghanistan but also allows for addressing important concerns.”

While different countries placed different priorities on human rights, terrorism, or drug trafficking, “there is a general recognition that they are intertwined”, and needed to viewed as a whole.

World’s biggest humanitarian crisis

He concluded speaking in his own capacity as Secretary-General, stating it was “difficult to overestimate the gravity of the situation in Afghanistan. It is the largest humanitarian crisis in the world today.”

A staggering 97 per cent live in poverty, while 28 million Afghans, need some form of humanitarian assistance.

Funding is not forthcoming, with the Humanitarian Response Plan, seeking $4.6 billion, having received “a mere $294 million” so far.

The vast majority of the UN personnel delivering lifesaving aid, are Afghan nationals, he stressed and banning women workers “deliberately undermines the development of a country that desperately needs the contributions of all, in order to achieve sustainable peace and contribute to regional stability.”

Stay and deliver

He pledged the UN would never waver in its commitment to support the Afghan people, and the Organization is determined to keep on delivering to preserve the fragile lifeline

Throughout the past decades, we stayed, and we delivered. And we are determined to seek the necessary conditions to keep delivering.

Asked if there were any circumstances when he would meet Taliban leaders, Mr. Guterres said that while today was not the right moment, he would “obviously not refuse that possibility”.

He said he was personally invested in convening a follow up meeting of envoys at a future date.