The new head of the UN refugee agency has urged leaders to “really act” to end the war in Sudan that has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions.
Barham Salih, the UN high commissioner for refugees and a former president of Iraq, visited Sudanese refugees who have fled into neighbouring Chad.
“I call upon the world to really act to bring this conflict to an end. This should not allowed be to continue,” said Mr Salih in a video from Chad published on Thursday.
Sudan plunged into chaos in April 2023 when a power struggle between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces escalated into open fighting. The war has resulted in mass killings, ethnic violence and accusations of war crimes.
The army controls the Sudanese capital Khartoum, but the RSF holds vast swathes of the south-west. “This conflict in Sudan is truly tragic, heart-rending,” Mr Salih said in a video from the town of Adre in south-east Chad, near the border with Sudan.
“I am standing at this border because it marks the line between life and death for thousands of people,” he said.
“It has been going on for far too long. It has caused immense suffering, abuse, murder, and displacement of millions of people,” he added.
Mr Salih, Iraq's president from 2018 to 2022, was voted in for a five-year term as refugee chief by the UN General Assembly in December, succeeding Italy's Filippo Grandi. On Monday he visited Kenya on his first official trip.
In Chad, Mr Salih said he had spoken to refugees, some of whom have just arrived in the past week. “The horrors they are talking about are truly, truly painful,” he said. “I've talked to women who have been abused, raped, and people whose parents have been killed.”
“Children have disappeared. It is just a calamity. It is the global front line with the humanitarian crisis of immense proportions.”
He said that UN refugee agency UNHCR and other international aid agencies were doing their best in order to deal with the needs of the people who are fleeing.
“One has to recognise that it is nowhere near what is needed,” he said. “So, my hope is that our collective efforts, our shared humanity will compel us to do better in dealing with the needs of the populations.'
The conflict has killed tens of thousands and displaced an estimated 13.6 million people, of whom about 4.3 million have fled to Chad, South Sudan and Egypt.
Nearly 21 million people now face acute food insecurity amid a collapsing economy and a healthcare system in crisis, UN agencies say.
