Sudan drone strikes kill nearly 700 in three months as civil war reaches grim milestone

Nearly 700 civilians have reportedly been killed in drone strikes in Sudan since January, the United Nations aid chief said Tuesday, decrying that three years of civil war had created the "world's largest humanitarian crisis".

Now entering a fourth year, the war between Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced more than 11 million, and thrust several areas into hunger and famine.

"In the first three months of this year, nearly 700 civilians were reportedly killed in drone strikes," Tom Fletcher said in a statement, a day before the three-year anniversary of the start of the war.

Watch moreSudanese people face 'generations of trauma', head of UN OCHA tells FRANCE 24

In recent months, near-daily drone strikes have disrupted life across Sudan, particularly in the southern Kordofan region, now the war's main battleground, and in RSF-controlled areas of the west, including Darfur.

"Millions have been driven from their homes across Sudan and beyond its borders, with entire communities emptied and families uprooted time and again. The risk of wider regional instability is high," said Fletcher.

The UN aid chief said three years of war had torn apart a country bearing immense promise, with nearly 34 million people – almost two in every three – needing humanitarian support.

He said hunger was on the rise as the lean season closes in, while hundreds of thousands of children were acutely malnourished and millions deprived of education.

Women and girls are facing systemic and brutal sexual violence, he added.

Response 'critically underfunded'

Fletcher said that last year, humanitarians reached 17 million people with support, and this year woud try to help 20 million.

However, "the response is critically underfunded", he said.

"We need action now – to stop the violence, protect civilians, ensure access to communities in greatest danger, and fund the response.

"This grim and chastening anniversary marks another year when the world has failed to meet the test of Sudan."

Read moreExclusive: The first proof of the use of chemical weapons in Sudan’s civil war

Denise Brown, the UN's resident coordinator in Sudan, said Monday that the UN appeal to raise $2.9 billion for Sudan this year is only 16 percent covered as international aid contributions from member countries decline.

Donors are to gather in Berlin on Wednesday for a conference on the conflict aimed at reviving faltering peace talks and mobilising aid for the humanitarian crisis.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)