Saudi ambassador to UK voted MENA diplomat of 2025    Saudi Awwal Bank signs SR2 billion credit facility with Saudi Binladin Group to propel development of King Fahd Sports City in Riyadh    Feast of Flavors and Prizes: LuLu Hypermarket kicks off the "World Food Festival" across Saudi Arabia    Pakistan closes airspace, suspends visaas in tit-for-tat measures against India    Saudia Group signs deal with Airbus for flyadeal's first wide-body aircraft    Saudi non-oil exports surge 14.3 percent to SR26.11bn in February    Saudi, Greek ministers co-chair inaugural meeting of Strategic Culture Committee    Israeli strikes across Gaza kill at least 26, Palestinian officials say    Trump's trade war olive branch met with derision and mistrust inside China    Ministry of Justice launches centralized court model to enhance judicial efficiency    Kyiv hit by deadly Russian missile and drone attack    Saudi Arabia elected chair of Asia region of World Meteorological Organization    Saudi Theater Commission launches its Work and Learn Project in UK    The season has begun — and one comment shook us all    Jennifer Lopez dazzles in Jeddah with a Formula 1 performance    Saudi Arabia open to expanded 64-team World Cup in 2034, says sports minister    Average life expectancy in Saudi Arabia rises to78.8 years    Super Max Verstappen scorches to pole with record lap in Jeddah    Film Commission launches 'Cinema' initiative to enhance content    Famed Philippine film star Nora Aunor dies at 71    Pakistani star's Bollywood return excites fans and riles far right    Veteran Bollywood actor Manoj Kumar dies at 87    Bollywood actress vindicated over boyfriend's death after media hounding    Grand Mufti rules against posting prayers and preaching in mosques on social media    Exotic Taif Roses Simulation Performed at Taif Rose Festival    Asian shares mixed Tuesday    Weather Forecast for Tuesday    Saudi Tourism Authority Participates in Arabian Travel Market Exhibition in Dubai    Minister of Industry Announces 50 Investment Opportunities Worth over SAR 96 Billion in Machinery, Equipment Sector    HRH Crown Prince Offers Condolences to Crown Prince of Kuwait on Death of Sheikh Fawaz Salman Abdullah Al-Ali Al-Malek Al-Sabah    HRH Crown Prince Congratulates Santiago Peña on Winning Presidential Election in Paraguay    SDAIA Launches 1st Phase of 'Elevate Program' to Train 1,000 Women on Data, AI    41 Saudi Citizens and 171 Others from Brotherly and Friendly Countries Arrive in Saudi Arabia from Sudan    Saudi Arabia Hosts 1st Meeting of Arab Authorities Controlling Medicines    General Directorate of Narcotics Control Foils Attempt to Smuggle over 5 Million Amphetamine Pills    NAVI Javelins Crowned as Champions of Women's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) Competitions    Saudi Karate Team Wins Four Medals in World Youth League Championship    Third Edition of FIFA Forward Program Kicks off in Riyadh    Evacuated from Sudan, 187 Nationals from Several Countries Arrive in Jeddah    SPA Documents Thajjud Prayer at Prophet's Mosque in Madinah    SFDA Recommends to Test Blood Sugar at Home Two or Three Hours after Meals    SFDA Offers Various Recommendations for Safe Food Frying    SFDA Provides Five Tips for Using Home Blood Pressure Monitor    SFDA: Instant Soup Contains Large Amounts of Salt    Mawani: New shipping service to connect Jubail Commercial Port to 11 global ports    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Delivers Speech to Pilgrims, Citizens, Residents and Muslims around the World    Sheikh Al-Issa in Arafah's Sermon: Allaah Blessed You by Making It Easy for You to Carry out This Obligation. Thus, Ensure Following the Guidance of Your Prophet    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques addresses citizens and all Muslims on the occasion of the Holy month of Ramadan    







Thank you for reporting!
This image will be automatically disabled when it gets reported by several people.



Nowhere else on Earth are so many children fleeing war
Published in The Saudi Gazette on 28 - 11 - 2024

KASSALA — Mahmoud is a cheeky teenager who beams the biggest of smiles even though he lost his front teeth in the rough and tumble of kids' play.
He is a Sudanese orphan abandoned twice, and displaced twice in his country's grievous war — one of nearly five million Sudanese children who have lost almost everything as they are pushed from one place to the next in what is now the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
Nowhere else on Earth are so many children on the run, so many people living with such acute hunger.
Famine has already been declared in one area — many others subsist on the brink of starvation not knowing where their next meal will come from.
"It's an invisible crisis," emphasizes the UN's new humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher.
"Twenty-five million Sudanese, more than half the country, need help now," he adds.
In a time of all too many unprecedented crises, where devastating wars in places like Gaza and Ukraine dominate the world's aid and attention, Fletcher chose Sudan for his first field mission to highlight its plight.
"This crisis is not invisible to the UN, to our humanitarians on the front line risking and losing their lives to help the Sudanese people," he told the BBC, as we traveled with him on his week-long trip.
Most of the people on his team working on the ground are also Sudanese who have lost their homes, their old lives, in this brutal struggle for power between the army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Fletcher's first field visit took him to Mahmoud's Maygoma orphanage in Kassala in eastern Sudan, now home to nearly 100 children in a crumbling three-story school-turned-shelter.
They lived with their carers in the capital, Khartoum, until the army and RSF turned their guns on each other in April 2023, trapping the orphanage as they dragged their country into a vortex of horrific violence, systematic looting and shocking abuse.
When fighting spread to the orphans' new shelter in Wad Madani, in central Sudan, those who survived fled to Kassala.
When I asked 13-year-old Mahmoud to make a wish, he immediately broke into a big gap-toothed grin.
"I want to be a state governor so I can be in charge and rebuild destroyed homes," he replied.
For 11 million Sudanese driven from one refuge to the next, returning to what is left of their homes and rebuilding their lives would be the biggest gift of all.
For now, even finding food to survive is a daily battle.
And for aid agencies, including the UN, getting it to them is a titanic task.
After Fletcher's four days of high-level meetings in Port Sudan, army chief Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan announced on the X social media site that he had given the UN permission to establish more supply hubs and to use three more regional airports to deliver assistance.
Some of the permissions had been granted before but some marked a step forward.
The new announcement also came as the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) secured a green light to reach stricken communities behind lines controlled by the RSF, including the Zamzam camp in Darfur housing about half a million people where famine was recently confirmed.
"We've been pushing for months to get to these communities," says Alex Marianelli, who heads WFP's operations in Port Sudan.
Behind us in a WFP warehouse, Sudanese laborers sing as they load trucks with boxes of food heading for the worst of the worst areas.
Marianelli reflects that he has never worked in such a difficult and dangerous environment.
Within the aid community, some criticize the UN, saying that its hands have been tied by recognizing Gen Burhan as the de facto ruler of Sudan.
"Gen Burhan and his authorities control those checkpoints and the system of permits and access," Fletcher says in response.
"If we want to go into those areas we need to deal with them."
He hopes the rival RSF will also put the people first.
"I'll go anywhere, talk to anyone, to get this aid through, and to save lives," Fletcher adds.
In Sudan's merciless war, all warring parties have been accused of using starvation as a weapon of war.
So too sexual violence, which the UN describes as "an epidemic" in Sudan.
The UN visit coincided with the "16 days of activism" marked globally as a campaign to stop gender-based violence.
In Port Sudan, the event in a displaced camp, the first to be set up when war flared, was especially poignant.
"We have to do better, we must do better," vowed Fletcher, who cast aside his prepared speech when he stood under a canopy facing rows of Sudanese women and children, clapping and ululating.
I asked some of the women listening what they made of his visit.
"We really need help but the major job should be from the Sudanese themselves," reflects Romissa, who works for a local aid group and recounts her own harrowing journey from Khartoum at the start of the war.
"This is the time for the Sudanese people to stand together."
The Sudanese have been trying to do a lot with a little.
In a simple two-room shelter, a safe house called Shamaa, or "Candle", brings some light to the lives of abused single women and orphaned children.
Its founder, Nour Hussein al-Sewaty, known as Mama Nour, also started life in the Maygoma orphanage.
She also had to flee Khartoum to protect those in her care. One woman now sheltering with her was raped before the war, then abducted and raped again.
Even the formidable Mama Nour is now at breaking point.
"We are so exhausted. We need help," she declares.
"We want to smell the fresh air. We want to feel there are still people in the world who care about us, the people of Sudan." — BBC


Clic here to read the story from its source.