KEY POINTS
- The U.N. says 15.4 million people in Sudan need emergency shelter.
- Agencies have reached only 900,000 people, and IOM warehouses are empty.
- Donors have funded just a third of the $179 million shelter appeal.
Millions of people uprooted by the Sudan war risk being left without shelter, the United Nations warned Friday, as aid agencies run short of supplies and money, Africanews reported.
After more than three years of fighting, the U.N. estimates that 15.4 million people need emergency shelter and basic household items. But because of funding shortages, agencies have been able to target only 10% of them.
Of those, the agencies reached just 900,000 people, said Mohamed Refaat, chief of mission in Sudan for the International Organization for Migration.
Sudan war shelter supplies run dry
The IOM has distributed more than 40,000 tents since January, Refaat said. Still, speaking to reporters in Geneva from Khartoum, he warned that “our warehouses are completely empty now,” and families may soon find there is simply nothing left.
Meanwhile, donors have funded only a third of the $179 million needed for shelter this year, said Abubakarr Jalloh, deputy representative of the U.N. refugee agency in Sudan. Overall, they have covered less than half of the $2.9 billion humanitarian plan for the country.
The war between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the army, which began in April 2023, has killed more than 200,000 people, aid workers estimate. It has also triggered the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises.
Women, children and drought
Around 8.6 million people remain displaced inside Sudan, while millions have fled abroad. Millions more have returned home, often to find houses, infrastructure and services damaged or destroyed. Helping returnees find shelter is often their first step toward rebuilding, UNHCR and the IOM said in a joint statement.
Three in four displaced people are women and children, Jalloh said. Also, El Nino-related weather has brought well-below-average rainfall this year, hurting harvests in Darfur, Kordofan and other war-hit areas.
So although food prices usually ease after harvest, they remain painfully high, he said. That leaves families who have lost everything choosing between food and the blankets or materials they need for safe shelter.
