UN says struggling to help millions fleeing Sudan war find shelter

Millions of people who have fled devastating conflict in Sudan face being left without shelter, the United Nations warned Friday.

After more than three years of civil war, the UN estimates that 15.4 million people need emergency shelter and essential household items.

But UN agencies said they had only been able to target 10% of those in need because of funding shortages.

And out of those, "we could reach only 900,000 people," said Mohamed Refaat, the International Organization for Migration's (IOM) chief of mission in Sudan.

The war raging since April 2023 between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the regular army has killed more than 200,000 people, aid workers estimate, and has triggered the world's largest hunger and displacement crises.

Around 8.6 million people remain displaced within the country, millions have fled across borders and millions more have returned home — often finding houses, infrastructure and essential services damaged or destroyed.

Since the start of the year, Refaat said the UN agency had distributed more than 40,000 tents.

"But our warehouses are completely empty now," he told reporters in Geneva, speaking from Khartoum.

"We could soon reach a point where families desperately need shelter but there is simply nothing left."

In a joint statement, UNHCR and IOM said for those returning home getting help to find shelter "is often the first step towards rebuilding their lives".

But only one third of the $179 million needed this year to provide shelter has so far been funded, Abubakarr Jalloh, UNHCR's deputy representative in Sudan, told reporters.

Three in four internally displaced people in Sudan are women and children, Jalloh said, adding that El Niño-related weather conditions have made people more vulnerable because of significantly below-average rainfall across Sudan this year.

This has affected harvests in Darfur, Kordofan and other areas already devastated by ongoing fighting. Although food prices would normally ease after the harvest season, prices remain “painfully high,” the UNHCR official said.

“For a family that has lost everything, every Sudanese pound spent on food is money that cannot be spent on a blanket or on materials needed for safe shelter,” Jalloh stressed.

The agencies said less than half of the $2.9 billion needed for the overall humanitarian aid plan for Sudan had been funded.