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Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: More than 20,000 lives lost, over 10 million people displaced and another 2 million forced to flee

Photo from Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus/X

Sep 11, 2024, 17:43

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: More than 20,000 lives lost, over 10 million people displaced and another 2 million forced to flee

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus shared a post on LinkedIn:

“Sudan is like my home. The health and humanitarian situation in the country saddens me very much. I am also sad that the crisis is not getting the attention it deserves from the international community.

I visited a World Health Organization-supported pediatric facility in Port Sudan, which provides life-saving care for infants suffering from acute malnutrition. I was shaken by the state of many of the tiny, wasted children, and stunned by the harrowing accounts of their mothers who have been displaced multiple times due to the insecurity, thankful at least to find refuge at this clinic.

I visited the Shagya site where internally displaced people from various parts of the country gather and can access essential primary health care services, being delivered at another WHO-supported health facility.

According to the available data, Sudan’s conflict has so far killed more than 20,000 people — which is an underestimate, displaced over 10 million people inside the country, and forced another 2 million to flee to neighbouring countries. This is the largest internal displacement of people in the world today.

The scale of the emergency is shocking, as is the insufficient action being taken to curtail the conflict, and respond to the suffering it is causing.

We are calling on the world to wake up and help Sudan out of the nightmare it is living through.

What do we need?

1) We need an immediate ceasefire, leading to a lasting political solution. The best medicine is peace.

2) We need to protect health facilities, health workers and patients – health should not be targeted.

3) We need sustained access to deliver supplies and aid.

4) We need to scale up disease surveillance; in some states, we are blind to what is happening due to the insecurity on the ground.

5) We need to scale up vaccination coverage against cholera, polio, measles and other diseases spreading in affected areas.

6) We need a massive increase in finances from the international community to scale up the response.

If we do this, we will save millions of lives and deliver hope for this proud country. We must not fail the people of Sudan.”

Source: Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus/LinkedIn

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), a position he has held since 2017. In this role, he has led global health initiatives and responses to public health emergencies, including the COVID-19 pandemic.

Previously, Dr. Tedros served as Ethiopia’s Minister of Health, where he significantly improved healthcare infrastructure and expanded access to health services. He also served as Ethiopia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, strengthening international diplomatic relations and advocating for health as a key component of global development.