2015 Humanitarian Needs Overview: Sudan, October 2014

KEY HUMANITARIAN ISSUES

3.2 million internally displaced people and refugees cannot meet their essential needs to survive and live in dignity

Internally displaced people and newly arrived refugees have similar needs.
Among them, the majority are women and children. They require humanitarian protection and immediate relief assistance including health, food, nutrition, water and sanitation, shelter, education and information to improve their lives. While about half a million people were newly displaced in 2014, another 2.7 million people have been living in displacement for at least one year in Darfur, South and West Kordofan and Blue Nile states. Those displaced for many years also need opportunities to enhance their self-reliance through integrated programming and livelihood interventions.

1.2 million children under 5 across the country are acutely malnourished

Both displaced and resident children suffer from acute and chronic malnutrition in Sudan. Emergency level rates have been observed for the last decades and 59 out of the 184 localities in Sudan have a prevalence of Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) above emergency threshold levels of 15 per cent, including in areas not affected by conflict. Some localities in North Darfur and Red Sea State report GAM rates above 30 per cent. An estimated 550,000 children under 5 suffer from severe acute malnutrition. Malnutrition is fuelled by infectious diseases and underlying public health threats. Addressing these needs will require a comprehensive approach which takes into account the multiple causes of malnutrition.

0.7 million people need durable solutions

Several groups of people need long-term solutions to transition to a more sustainable future. These include an estimated 350,000 South Sudanese who lived in Sudan before secession. Another 170,000 refugees and asylum seekers from Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, Eritrea, and Ethiopia live in Sudan, sometimes for decades, awaiting durable solutions. 150,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) and former Sudanese refugees have recently returned to their area of origin and need to rebuild their lives.