WHO, Red Cross seek aid access amid Sudan fighting
![WHO, Red Cross seek aid access amid Sudan fighting WHO, Red Cross seek aid access amid Sudan fighting](https://citizentv.obs.af-south-1.myhuaweicloud.com/92267/conversions/CS2FZ34BUVPINOVATTG33HUIAI-og_image.webp)
Smoke rises in Omdurman, near Halfaya Bridge, during clashes between the Paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the army as seen from Khartoum North, Sudan April 15, 2023. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah
The Red Cross and the World Health
Organization on Tuesday urged Sudan's warring parties to guarantee humanitarian
access for those in need as the death toll in the fighting neared 200.
Explosions rocked the capital Khartoum on
the fourth day of fighting, despite growing international calls for an end to
hostilities.
"All parties must ensure unrestricted
and safe access to health facilities for those injured and everyone in need of
medical care," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press
conference.
The United Nations currently has no access
in or out of Sudan.
Spokeswoman Alessandra Vellucci said the UN
had about 800 international and 3,200 national staff in the country.
"We are of course worried for the
security, they cannot operate in a regular way," she said.
Nearly one third of the Sudanese population
-- almost 16 million people -- needed humanitarian aid at the start of this
year.
"We have thousands of volunteers who
are ready, able and trained to perform humanitarian services" in the
country, said Farid Aiywar, the Sudan head of delegation for the International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
"Unfortunately, due to the current
situation, they are not able to move," he told reporters in Geneva via
video-link from Nairobi.
Aiywar called on all parties to allow
humanitarian aid corridors to operate.
Civilians are staying indoors but
electricity and water have been cut and food supplies are short.
Tedros said supplies the WHO distributed to
health facilities before the outbreak of violence were now exhausted.
He said Khartoum hospitals receiving
injured civilians were reporting shortages of staff and lifesaving medical
supplies, while they were also being hampered by fuel shortages and cuts to
power and water.
"There are disturbing reports of some
health facilities being looted and others being used for military
purposes," he said.
"It is also reported that some
hospitals are already closed, or on the brink of closure, due to attacks, and a
lack of medical personnel and medical supplies.
"I urge all sides to heed the calls
for a humanitarian ceasefire, to silence the guns and to work towards a
peaceful resolution."
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