Red Cross, WHO seek aid access amid Sudan fighting

GENEVA — The Red Cross and the World Health Organization on Tuesday urged Sudan's warring parties to guarantee humanitarian access for those in need as the death toll in the fighting neared 200.

"We have thousands of volunteers who are ready, able and trained to perform humanitarian services" in the country, said Farid Aiywar, the Sudan head of delegation for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

"Unfortunately, due to the current situation, they are not able to move," he told reporters in Geneva, via video-link from Nairobi.

Aiywar called on all parties to allow humanitarian aid corridors to operate.

UN spokeswoman Alessandra Vellucci said the United Nations had about 800 international staff and 3,200 national staff in Sudan.

"We are of course worried for the security, they cannot operate in a regular way," she said.

Despite international appeals for an immediate halt to the violence in Sudan, fighting entered a fourth day Tuesday, with the UN counting nearly 200 dead.

Civilians are staying indoors but electricity and water have been cut and food supplies are short.

"We get calls from all sorts of corners, people who want to have basic things, food for their family," Aiywar said.

"We [are] reuniting children with their parents, and yet you cannot move, you cannot provide them the basic services of providing a bottle of water or meal for a child.

"There is a disruption of the health system and if it continues, it will almost go into a collapse," he warned.

WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said many of Khartoum's nine hospitals that are treating injured civilians are reporting shortages of crucial supplies such as "blood, transfusion equipment, intravenous fluids, medical supplies and other life-saving commodities."

The WHO also condemned attacks on health infrastructure, with Harris noting three cases had already been documented, "but we know of many more."

"The parties must ensure that care can be provided and it can't be if staff and ambulances and supplies cannot be moved around safely." — Agence France-Presse