UN tells Israel it will suspend aid operations across Gaza without improved safety

A US Army soldier gestures as trucks loaded with humanitarian aid arrive at the US-built floating pier Trident before reaching the beach on the coast of the Gaza Strip, Tuesday, June 25, 2024. (AP)
A US Army soldier gestures as trucks loaded with humanitarian aid arrive at the US-built floating pier Trident before reaching the beach on the coast of the Gaza Strip, Tuesday, June 25, 2024. (AP)
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Updated 25 June 2024
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UN tells Israel it will suspend aid operations across Gaza without improved safety

UN tells Israel it will suspend aid operations across Gaza without improved safety
  • UN and other aid officials have complained for months that they have no way to communicate quickly and directly with Israeli forces on the ground

WASHINGTON DC: Senior UN officials have warned Israel that they will suspend the world body’s aid operations across Gaza unless Israel acts urgently to better protect humanitarian workers, two UN officials said Tuesday. The ultimatum is the latest in a series of UN steps demanding Israel do more to safeguard aid operations from strikes by its forces and to curb growing lawlessness hindering humanitarian workers.
A UN letter sent to Israeli officials this month said Israel must provide UN workers with a way to communicate directly with Israeli forces on the ground in Gaza, among other steps, the officials said.
They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing negotiations with Israeli officials. The UN officials said there has been no final decision on suspending operations across Gaza and that talks with Israelis were ongoing.
Israeli military officials did not respond to requests for comment. Israel has previously acknowledged some military strikes on humanitarian workers, including an April attack that killed seven workers with the World Central Kitchen, and has denied allegations of others.
Citing security concerns, the UN World Food Program has already suspended aid delivery from a US-built pier designed to bring food and other emergency supplies to Palestinians who are facing starvation amid the eight-month war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
UN and other aid officials have complained for months that they have no way to communicate quickly and directly with Israeli forces on the ground, in contrast with the usual procedures — known as “deconfliction” — employed in conflict zones globally to protect aid workers from attack by combatants.
In its letter to Israeli officials, the UN cited communication and protective equipment for aid workers as among the commitments that it wanted Israel to make good on for its aid operations to continue in Gaza overall, the two UN officials say.
The UN said in April that about 30 humanitarian workers have been killed in the line of duty in Gaza since the war between Israel and Hamas began in October.
The UN and other humanitarian organizations also complain of increasing crime in Gaza and have urged Israel to do more to improve overall security for their operations from attack and theft. The lawlessness has stymied what Israel said was a daily pause in fighting to allow a new safe corridor to deliver aid into southern Gaza, with humanitarian officials saying groups of gunmen are regularly blocking convoys, holding drivers at gunpoint and rifling through their cargo.
On top of that, “missiles hit our premises, despite being deconflicted,” said Steve Taravela, a spokesman for the World Food Program, one of the main organizations working on humanitarian delivery in Gaza. He was not one of those confirming the UN threat to suspend operations across the territory. “WFP warehouses have been caught in the crossfire twice in the past two weeks.”
Humanitarian officials said conditions for civilians and aid workers have worsened further since early May when Israel launched an offensive in the southern city of Rafah, where many aid groups had their base. The operation has crippled what had been a main border crossing for food and other aid.
Aid workers trying to get shipments through the main remaining crossing, Kerem Shalom, face risks from fighting, damaged roads, unexploded ordnance and Israeli restrictions, including spending five or more hours a day waiting at checkpoints, Taravela said.
“Restoring order is crucial for an effective humanitarian response to meet soaring needs. UN agencies and others need a safe environment to be able to access people and scale up,” he said.
Israeli officials say the problems at Kerem Shalom are a matter of poor UN logistics.
Separately, the United Nations has also suspended cooperation with the US-built pier since June 9, a day after the Israeli military used the area around the pier in a hostage rescue that killed more than 270 Palestinians.
While US and Israeli officials said no part of the pier itself was used in the raid that rescued four hostages taken by Hamas, UN officials said any perception in Gaza that the project was used in the Israeli military operation may endanger their aid work.
The UN has finished a security assessment of the pier operation following the raid but has not yet made a decision on resuming any delivery of supplies from the US-built structure, according to a humanitarian official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details that have not yet been released publicly.
Speaking to reporters traveling with a US delegation to a gathering of defense chiefs in Botswana on Tuesday, an official with the US Agency for International Development expressed optimism that aid deliveries from the pier would eventually resume.
“I think it’s a question of when the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) can provide, and the government of Israel can provide, the assurances that the UN is seeking on deconfliction and security right now,” said Isobel Coleman, deputy administrator of USAID, which has been working with the World Food Program on aid distribution from the pier.


UN warns of renewed conflict in Syria but offers hope with sanctions lifting

UN warns of renewed conflict in Syria but offers hope with sanctions lifting
Updated 22 May 2025
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UN warns of renewed conflict in Syria but offers hope with sanctions lifting

UN warns of renewed conflict in Syria but offers hope with sanctions lifting
  • The new Syrian government, led by Ahmad Al-Sharaa, has said Syria’s heritage of coexistence must be preserved at all costs, but the country faces massive challenges

UNITED NATIONS: The top UN official for Syria warned Wednesday of the “real dangers of renewed conflict and deeper confrontation” in the war-battered country but also hoped for a better life for its people following decisions by the US and European Union to lift sanctions.
Geir Pedersen noted the fragilities in the multiethnic country and “the urgent need to address the growing polarization.” He pointed to violence against the Druze minority in late April following the killings in Alawite-minority areas in March.
“The challenges facing Syria are enormous, and the real dangers of renewed conflict and deeper fragmentation have not yet been overcome,” he told the UN Security Council.
But Pedersen said the Syrian people are cautiously optimistic that President Donald Trump’s announcement last week that the US will lift sanctions and a similar EU announcement Tuesday will “give them a better chance than before to succeed against great odds.”
Speaking by video from Damascus, Pedersen called sanctions relief, including by the United Kingdom last month, as well as financial and energy support from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkiye “historic developments.”
“They hold major potential to improve living conditions across the country and to support the Syrian political transition,” the UN special envoy said. “And they give the Syrian people a chance to grapple with the legacy of misrule, conflict, abuses and poverty from which they are trying to emerge.”
Former Syrian President Bashar Assad was ousted in a lightning rebel offensive late last year after a 13-year war, ending more than 50 years of rule by the Assad family. The new Syrian government, led by Ahmad Al-Sharaa, has said Syria’s heritage of coexistence must be preserved at all costs, but the country faces massive challenges.
Today, 90 percent of Syrians live in poverty, with 16.5 million needing protection and humanitarian assistance, including nearly 3 million facing acute food insecurity, Ramesh Rajasingham, the UN humanitarian division’s chief coordinator, told the council.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday that Syria is potentially “on the verge of collapse,” warning that would lead to civil war and the country again becoming “a playground” for the Daesh group and other militants.
Pedersen told the Security Council that IS has been escalating attacks in areas of Syria in recent weeks, with signs of more coordinated operations using improvised explosive devices and medium-range weapons.
Rubio said there’s no guarantee that “things are going to work out” by lifting sanctions and working with Al-Sharaa’s transitional government, but if the US didn’t try, “it’s guaranteed not to work out.” He said Trump’s announcement of sanctions relief has led regional and Arab partner nations to help stabilize the country.
“No one should pretend this is going to be easy, because it’s not,” Rubio said. But if Syria could be stabilized, it would mean broader stability in the region, including Lebanon, Jordan and Israel, he said.
“It is a historic opportunity we hope comes to fruition,” Rubio said. “We’re going to do everything we can to make it succeed.”
John Kelley, political coordinator at the US mission to the United Nations, told the council that “US government agencies are now working to execute the president’s direction on Syria’s sanctions.”
“We look forward to issuing the necessary authorizations that will be critical to bringing new investment into Syria to help rebuild Syria’s economy and put the country on a path to a bright, prosperous and stable future,” he said. “The United States also has taken the first steps toward restoring normal diplomatic relations with Syria.”
Syria’s transitional government is urged to take “bold steps” toward Trump administration expectations, Kelley said, including making peace with Israel, quickly removing foreign militant fighters from the Syrian military, ensuring foreign extremists such as Palestinian militias can’t operate from Syria, and cooperating in preventing the resurgence of the Daesh group.
Syria’s deputy UN ambassador, Riyad Khaddour, praised Trump’s “courageous decision” to lift sanctions as well as his meeting with Al-Sharaa. Khaddour also touted actions by the European Union, UK, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates “to support Syria as it moves forward with confidence and hope.”
“The new Syria” is seeking to become “a state of peace and partnership, not a battleground for conflicts or a platform for foreign ambitions,” he said.


A look at South Sudan, where the US is accused of quietly sending migrants

A look at South Sudan, where the US is accused of quietly sending migrants
Updated 5 sec ago
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A look at South Sudan, where the US is accused of quietly sending migrants

A look at South Sudan, where the US is accused of quietly sending migrants
  • Years of conflict have left South Sudan heavily reliant on aid that has been hit hard by another Trump administration decision — sweeping cuts in foreign assistance

The United States is being asked to explain why it appears to be deporting migrants from as far away as Vietnam and Cuba to South Sudan, a chaotic country that’s once again in danger of collapsing into civil war.
A US judge ordered Trump administration officials to appear at an emergency hearing Wednesday to answer questions. The administration said it had expelled eight immigrants convicted of violent crimes in the US but refused to say where they would end up.
If South Sudan is the confirmed destination, that means people from Vietnam, Mexico and elsewhere are being sent to a nation they have no link to, thousands of miles from where they want to be. Vietnam’s list of its embassies in Africa shows the closest one to South Sudan is in Tanzania, over 800 miles away.
South Sudan’s police spokesperson, Maj. Gen. James Monday Enoka, told The Associated Press that no migrants had arrived and if they did, they would be investigated and “redeported to their correct country” if not South Sudanese.
Some in the capital, Juba, worried their country would become a kind of dumping ground. “Those people who are deported, some of them are criminals, they have been involved in crimes. So once they are brought to South Sudan, that means that criminal activities will also increase,” said Martin Mawut Ochalla, 28.
This would not be the first time the Trump administration has pressured South Sudan over deportees. Recently, the administration abruptly revoked the visas of all South Sudanese, saying their government failed to accept the return of its citizens “in a timely manner.” South Sudan pushed back, saying the person in question was Congolese, but later said it would allow him to enter “in the spirit of maintaining friendly relations” with the US
South Sudan’s government has struggled since independence from Sudan in 2011 to deliver many of the basic services of a state. Years of conflict have left the country heavily reliant on aid that has been hit hard by another Trump administration decision — sweeping cuts in foreign assistance.
Here’s a look at South Sudan, whose own people had been granted US temporary protected status because of insecurity at home.
A deadly divide
The euphoria of independence turned to civil war two years later, when rival factions backing President Salva Kiir and deputy Riek Machar opened fire on each other in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, in 2013.
The two men’s tensions have been so much at the heart of the country’s insecurity that the late Pope Francis once took the extraordinary step of kneeling to kiss their feet in a plea for lasting peace.
Five years of civil war killed hundreds of thousands of people. A peace deal reached in 2018 has been fragile and not fully implemented, to the frustration of the US and other international backers. South Sudan still hasn’t held a long-delayed presidential election, and Kiir remains in power.
His rivalry with Machar is compounded by ethnic divisions. Machar has long regarded himself as destined for the presidency, citing a prophecy years ago by a seer from his ethnic group.
Earlier this year, the threat of war returned. Machar was arrested and allies in the government and military were detained following a major escalation that included airstrikes and an attack on a United Nations helicopter. Machar’s opposition party announced South Sudan’s peace deal was effectively over.
“Let’s not mince words: What we are seeing is darkly reminiscent of the 2013 and 2016 civil wars, which killed 400,000 people,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned.
Some Western countries have closed their embassies there while others, including the US, have reduced embassy staff. The US Embassy’s travel warning said that “violent crime, such as carjackings, shootings, ambushes, assaults, robberies, and kidnappings are common throughout South Sudan, including Juba.”
A country in disarray
The Trump administration’s pressure on South Sudan to take in deportees, including foreign ones, is in sharp contrast to Washington’s past warm embrace as its rebel leaders — including Kiir and Machar — fought for independence.
Now there is less support than ever for most of South Sudan’s over 11 million people because of the cuts in US aid.
Climate shocks including flooding have long caused mass displacement and closed schools. South Sudan’s health and education systems were already among the weakest in the world. Aid organizations had offered essential help.
South Sudan’s government has long relied on oil production, but little money from that is seen, in part because of official corruption. Conflict in neighboring Sudan has affected landlocked South Sudan’s oil exports. Civil servants at times go months without being paid.
How South Sudan is equipped to handle migrants arriving abruptly from the US is yet to be seen.


Israeli army said ‘eliminated’ attacker who killed pregnant woman

Israeli army said ‘eliminated’ attacker who killed pregnant woman
Updated 22 May 2025
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Israeli army said ‘eliminated’ attacker who killed pregnant woman

Israeli army said ‘eliminated’ attacker who killed pregnant woman
  • A resident of the Israeli settlement of Bruchin, 37-year-old Tzeela Gez died after she was shot in her vehicle

JERUSALEM: Israel’s military announced Wednesday it “eliminated” the perpetrator of an attack that left one pregnant woman dead in the occupied West Bank last week.
In a joint statement with Israel’s internal security agency and the police, the army said that its forces were approached by an armed man in the West Bank town of Bruqin Saturday, near the site of last week’s attack.
They said the man was “running toward the forces while holding a backpack suspected to be rigged with explosives, shouting at them,” as they were conducting search operations.
An intelligence assessment said that “Nael Samara, the terrorist who was eliminated, was the terrorist who carried out the shooting attack adjacent to Bruchin on Thursday, May 14, 2025, in which a pregnant woman, Tzeela Gez, was murdered.”
A resident of the Israeli settlement of Bruchin, 37-year-old Tzeela Gez died after she was shot in her vehicle as she headed to the hospital to give birth.
Her baby was delivered by C-section, but was still in serious condition Tuesday, according to the father.
“We will catch the killers as we always do, we will fight them and we will defeat them,” Netanyahu said in a video released by his office later that day.
Israeli army chief Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir had earlier said “we will use all the tools at our disposal and reach the murderers in order to hold them accountable.”
Since the beginning of the Gaza war, sparked by Palestinian militant group Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the West Bank has seen a surge in violence.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territory are considered illegal under international law.


The UN says no aid that has entered Gaza this week has reached Palestinians

The UN says no aid that has entered Gaza this week has reached Palestinians
Updated 22 May 2025
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The UN says no aid that has entered Gaza this week has reached Palestinians

The UN says no aid that has entered Gaza this week has reached Palestinians
  • Food security experts have warned that Gaza risks falling into famine unless the blockade ends

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza: The UN said Wednesday it was trying to get the desperately needed aid that has entered Gaza this week into the hands of Palestinians amid delays because of fears of looting and Israeli military restrictions. Israeli strikes pounded the territory, killing at least 86 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Under international pressure, Israel has allowed dozens of aid trucks into Gaza after blocking all food, medicine, fuel and other material for nearly three months. But the supplies have been sitting on the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the majority of supplies that had entered since Monday had been loaded onto UN trucks, but they could not take them out of the crossing area. He said the road the Israeli military had given them permission to use was too unsafe. Talks were underway for an alternative, he said.
A UN official later said some trucks had left the crossing area, heading for warehouses in Gaza, but there was no immediate confirmation they arrived. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.
Food security experts have warned that Gaza risks falling into famine unless the blockade ends. Malnutrition and hunger have been mounting. Aid groups ran out of food to distribute weeks ago, and most of the population of around 2.3 million relies on communal kitchens whose supplies are nearly depleted.
At a kitchen in Gaza City, a charity group distributed watery lentil soup.
Somaia Abu Amsha scooped small portions for her family, saying they have not had bread for over 10 days and she can’t afford rice or pasta.
“We don’t want anything other than that they end the war. We don’t want charity kitchens. Even dogs wouldn’t eat this, let alone children,” she said.
Aid groups say the small amount of aid that Israel has allowed is far short of what is needed. About 600 trucks entered daily under the latest ceasefire.
Israeli warning shots shake diplomats
Israeli troops fired warning shots as a group of international diplomats was visiting the Jenin refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Footage showed a number of diplomats giving media interviews as rapid shots ring out nearby, forcing them to run for cover. No one was reported injured.
The Israeli military said their visit had been approved, but the delegation “deviated from the approved route.” The military said it apologized and will contact the countries involved in the visit.
Israeli troops have raided Jenin dozens of times as part of a crackdown across the West Bank. The fighting displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians.
Netanyahu says population will be moved south
Israel has said its slight easing of the blockade is a bridge until a new distribution system it demands is put in place. The UN and other humanitarian groups have rejected the system, saying it enables Israel to use aid as a weapon and forcibly displace the population.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters the plan will begin “in coming days.”
He said in a subsequent phase, Israel would create a “sterile zone” in the south, free of Hamas, where the population would be moved “for the purposes of its safety.” There, they would receive aid, “and then they enter – and they don’t necessarily go back.”
The plan involves small number of distribution hubs directed by a private, US-backed foundation known as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Armed private contractors would guard the distribution.
Israel says the system is needed because Hamas siphons off significant amounts of aid. The UN denies that claim.
Initially, four hubs are being built, one in central Gaza and three at the far southern end of the strip, where few people remain.
A GHF spokesman said the group would never participate in or support any form of forced relocation of civilians. The spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity in accordance with the group’s rules. said there was no limit to the number of sites and additional sites will open, including in the north, within the next month.
The trickle of aid is jammed
Currently, after supplies enter at Kerem Shalom, aid workers are required to unload them and reload them onto their own trucks for distribution.
Antoine Renard, the World Food Program’s country chief for Palestine, said 78 trucks were waiting. He told The Associated Press that “we need to ensure that we will not be looted.”
Looting has plagued aid deliveries in the past, and at times of desperation people have swarmed aid trucks, taking supplies.
A UN official and another humanitarian worker said the Israeli military had designated a highly insecure route known to have looters. The military also set a short window for trucks to come to Kerem Shalom and rejected a number of individual truck drivers, forcing last-minute replacements, they said. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.
COGAT, the Israeli defense body overseeing aid for Gaza, did not immediately respond when asked for comment.
Hospitals surrounded
Israeli strikes continued across Gaza. In the southern city of Khan Younis, where Israel recently ordered new evacuations pending an expanded offensive, 24 people were killed, 14 from the same family. A week-old infant was killed in central Gaza. In the evening, a strike hit a house in Jabaliya in northern Gaza, killing two children and their parents, according to hospital officials.
The Israeli military did not comment on the strikes. It says it targets Hamas infrastructure and accuses Hamas militants of operating from civilian areas.
Israeli troops also have surrounded two of northern Gaza’s last functioning hospitals, preventing anyone from leaving or entering the facilities, hospital staff and aid groups said this week.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 others. The militants are still holding 58 captives, around a third believed to be alive, after most were returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has destroyed large swaths of Gaza and killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.


War-displaced Sudanese return to collapsed cities, disease and dwindling aid

War-displaced Sudanese return to collapsed cities, disease and dwindling aid
Updated 21 May 2025
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War-displaced Sudanese return to collapsed cities, disease and dwindling aid

War-displaced Sudanese return to collapsed cities, disease and dwindling aid
  • Humanitarian agencies face security threats, access restrictions and deep funding cuts while trying to support returning populations
  • Areas reclaimed by the SAF often lack clean water, electricity, shelter and healthcare, forcing returnees to survive in dire conditions

DUBAI: As Sudan’s civil war grinds through its second year, a new chapter is unfolding — the slow and uncertain return of families to towns and cities recently recaptured by the Sudanese Armed Forces from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

But as they do so, aid agencies say, they are finding not assurances of normalcy but scenes of devastation, disease and dwindling humanitarian support.

Nowhere is this more visible than in the capital, Khartoum. Once the heart of Sudan’s political and economic life, it was among the first cities to be consumed by violence when a violent factional struggle erupted on April 15, 2023.

Fighters loyal to the army patrol a market area in Khartoum on March 24, 2025. (AFP photo)

Following months of intense urban warfare and the occupation of the city by the RSF, Khartoum was retaken by government troops in early March.

Since then, an estimated 6,000 returnees have arrived in the city each day, according to state police. Most return with few possessions and even fewer options, compelled by necessity rather than optimism.

The International Organization for Migration estimates that roughly 400,000 people returned to Khartoum and surrounding states such as Al-Jazirah and Sennar between December and March.

The figures mark the first recorded decline — a modest 2.4 percent — in Sudan’s displaced population since the conflict began. Yet for many, the homecoming is fraught with hardship.

“Many of those returning home from abroad or from elsewhere in the country remain with critical needs, often coming back with only what can be easily carried, or returning to find their previous homes unsafe for dignified living,” Natalie Payne, program support officer in IOM’s emergency response team, told Arab News.

Much of Khartoum’s infrastructure — homes, schools, hospitals, power grids, and water treatment facilities — lies in ruins. In many neighborhoods, rubble clogs the streets, health clinics are shuttered, and there is no running water or electricity.

A man walks in the shrapnel-riddled ward of a hospital in Khartoum on April 28, 2025. (AFP photo)
Sudanese people gather at a camp for displaced people, in Port Sudan, on April 15, 2025. (AFP)

With no functioning schools or job opportunities, families are forced to rely on the overstretched aid system for survival.

Across Sudan, the needs are immense. Payne said IOM has recorded large-scale gaps in access to food, basic household goods, clean water, healthcare, and sanitation — not only for returnees but for communities that hosted them during the war.IN NUMBERS:

• 24.6 million People facing acute food insecurity in Sudan (World Food Programme)

• 12.5 million People displaced (inside and outside) since April 2023 (International Organization for Migration).

• 13.2 percent Proportion of humanitarian funding received for Sudan’s $4.2 billion UN appeal in 2025 (OCHA).

• 17 million Children out of school in Sudan (Oxfam).

Livelihood support is also urgently needed to help people rebuild some measure of stability.

However, international agencies face mounting challenges in responding. The war has displaced more than 11.3 million people inside Sudan and forced nearly four million more to seek refuge in neighboring countries — including Egypt, Chad, and South Sudan — making it the world’s largest displacement crisis.

Displaced Sudanese sit at a shelter after they were evacuated by the Sudanese army to a safer area in Omdurman, on May 13, 2025, amid the ongoing war in Sudan. (AFP)

At the same time, the conflict has sparked what the UN calls the world’s worst hunger crisis. Famine has already been declared in 10 areas, and aid officials fear this number will grow without immediate intervention.

“Given that the fighting has destroyed health, water, and sanitation infrastructure, IOM looks to operate mobile clinics, rehabilitate primary health care centers, and rehabilitate water infrastructure at gathering sites, as well as major border entry areas, such as the Askheet and Argeen border crossing point in Northern state between Sudan and Egypt,” said Payne.

To operate in insecure or hard-to-reach areas, aid agencies partner with local organizations that have access and trust. One such partner is Sudan Zero Waste Organization, a grassroots NGO based in Khartoum, which is helping prevent disease outbreaks in communities of return.

In a statement to Arab News, SZWO said cholera cases are rising in the capital and nearby Jebel Aulia due to a lack of safe drinking water and basic sanitation.

“Many returnees are being affected by cholera as a result of contact with the affected ones due to lack of awareness, lack of clean water access, and improper hygiene practices,” the organization said.

SZWO is collaborating with NGOs and UN agencies to rehabilitate water points and hygiene facilities. It also plans to scale up community kitchens to combat food insecurity and distribute cash to the most vulnerable households.

A victim of unexploded ordnance lies on a bed at a hospital in Omdurman on April 28, 2025, as the Sudanese army deepens control in the city. (REUTERS)

Long term, it hopes to support local healthcare centers in newly accessible areas, though it acknowledges that needs are currently far greater than capacity.

Meanwhile, global humanitarian funding is drying up. The UN’s Humanitarian Needs Response Plan for Sudan in 2025 is seeking $4.2 billion to reach nearly 21 million people. As of mid-May, only 13.2 percent of that amount had been secured.

Humanitarians also face logistical challenges, particularly during Sudan’s rainy season, which runs from June to October. Flooded terrain makes it difficult to reach remote or newly liberated areas, many of which are in desperate need of food and medical assistance.

“Access in Sudan is restricted at different times of the year due to adverse weather conditions,” said Payne. “Shocks throughout the rainy season can lead to increased needs with limited opportunities to respond.”

A van drives down a street in the capital Khartoum's southern neighborhood of al-Kalakla on April 29, 2025. (AFP)

And while some areas are stabilizing, violence is flaring elsewhere. Port Sudan, the de facto wartime capital and humanitarian hub, recently came under attack — prompting the UN to warn that continued hostilities there could disrupt aid operations across the country.

Other areas remain perilously unstable. West Kordofan and West Darfur have seen renewed fighting. In North Darfur, the SAF-held capital of Al-Fasher is under siege, and the nearby Zamzam and Abu Shouk displacement camps — already gripped by famine — have come under attack.

These offensives have pushed new waves of displacement, with an estimated 450,000 people recently fleeing the region.

Displaced Sudanese sit at a shelter after they were evacuated by the Sudanese army to a safer area in Omdurman, on May 13, 2025, amid the ongoing war in Sudan.

Beyond Sudan’s borders, neighboring countries are also straining under the weight of the crisis. According to UNHCR, more than 2,000 people are crossing into Chad every day, with rising numbers arriving in Libya and Uganda.

Host countries, many of which are grappling with their own economic or security challenges, are running out of resources.

“Countries and communities receiving refugees have nothing to offer but a big heart,” Mamadou Dian Balde, UNHCR’s regional refugee coordinator for Sudan, told Arab News.

“In Eastern Chad today, we have more refugees than nationals. South Sudan, itself mired in poverty, is further struggling to meet the needs of Sudan’s refugees. If we do not put an end to this conflict, its repercussions will expand to other countries.”

A Sudanese refugee completes her biometric registration with UNHCR teams in the Tine transit center, in Tine, Wadi Fira province, Chad, on April 9, 2025. (AFP)

Within Sudan, the influx of returning and displaced populations into devastated neighborhoods is stretching local resources to breaking point. The economic collapse, lack of essential services, and ongoing violence have created perfect conditions for a humanitarian catastrophe.

Balde said while returns from abroad have begun, the conditions are far from ideal.

“We have started seeing people returning, but these returns happen in adverse circumstances,” he said. “Some people consider going back home or some families have decided to divide the family into two, sending some members first to go and see what properties they have left.”

Internally displaced people walk along a street in Juba, South Sudan, on Feb. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga, File)

He added: “People need support, but it needs to be balanced because there are returns that are not in large numbers versus the large number of refugees outside the country. I don’t know whether we will still see this large number of people returning if we continue hearing about all these attacks.”

Ultimately, aid agencies say the success of any return initiative hinges on far more than food or tents. It depends on a sustained ceasefire, political will and a long-term commitment from donors to rebuild essential infrastructure — from hospitals and schools to power stations and roads.

Until then, Sudan’s returnees in Khartoum must remain in a bleak and dangerous limbo while the SAF and RSF slug it out in other parts of the country.