Continuing fighting in Sudan’s capital Khartoum has led aid agencies to suspend their work and for governments to hasten their plans to evacuate foreign nations.
The British government estimates that even before the current outbreak of violence, over 15.8 million people were in need of assistance. With heavy artillery and air bombardment affecting civilians in built-up areas, Relief International personnel and three World Food Programme (WFP) staff members have been killed, according to the FCDO. The WFP has now suspended operations.
“Aid agencies aren't able to get unhindered access”, former Africa minister Vicky Ford MP told Premier Christian News. “They can't deliver life-saving assistance and people desperately need that assistance”, she added.
Samaritan’s Purse, an international Christian relief organisation, has relocated its staff based in the capital, with seventeen staff members, including four Americans, moved to safety outside the immediate conflict zone.
With a request to Premier supporters to “Please pray for peace in Sudan”, Samaritan’s Purse said they had been “working in Sudan since 1993, helping hundreds of thousands of people by setting up hospitals, opening schools, distributing food, providing agricultural supplies, and rebuilding hundreds of churches that were destroyed during the civil war.”
Conservative MP Vicky Ford is Chair of the APPG on Sudan in Westminster and also urged Premier: “Please, people, please, first of all, will you pray for a ceasefire, pray for the weapons to be put down. And for people to start talking again”.
She continued:
“Pray for the humanitarian aid to be able to flow, and pray for the safety of all the people in Sudan but especially the British citizens who are caught up there. Over the weekend, we air-lifted out the staff who work at the British Embassy because they had become under particular threat.
“But the most important thing is to pray for the ceasefire and pray for people to start talking to each other again.”
