GENEVA: Nearly 700 civilians have been reported killed in drone strikes in Sudan since January, the United Nations said Tuesday, detailing the devastation and humanitarian catastrophe wrought by the brutal civil war.
Now entering a fourth year, the war between Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has killed tens of thousands, displaced over 11 million, and thrust several areas into famine.
"In the first three months of this year, nearly 700 civilians were reportedly killed in drone strikes," UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said in a statement, a day before the three-year anniversary of the start of the war.
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.
The UN children's agency said drones were "responsible for nearly 80 percent" of the at least 245 children reported killed or injured during the first three months of the year.
Eva Hinds, UNICEF's spokeswoman in Sudan, said: "Drones are killing and wounding girls and boys in their homes, in markets, on the roads, near schools and health facilities".
Brutal sexual violence
Meanwhile, women and girls are facing surging and systemic sexual violence, the UN Women agency warned.
"Sexual violence as a tactic of war is being used to inflict terror, inflict humiliation, pain, and control over women and girls and to oppress entire populations," said Anna Mutavati, UN Women's regional director for east and southern Africa.
The number of women and girls requiring support for gender-based violence has quadrupled since the start of the war, she said.
19 million face acute hunger
"Millions have been driven from their homes across Sudan and beyond its borders," UN aid chief Fletcher said, adding: "The risk of wider regional instability is high."
He said nearly 34 million people -- almost two in every three -- needed humanitarian support and that hunger was on the rise as the lean season closes in.
According to the UN's World Food Programme, more than 19 million people face acute hunger, while famine stalks large areas of Darfur and Kordofan.
Ross Smith, WFP's head of emergency preparedness and response, warned the situation now was "being dangerously compounded" by the war in the Middle East, which was disrupting shipping routes and driving up the cost of food, fuel and fertiliser.
"This will have a knock-on effect on all, the price of all stable goods and food commodities pushing more people into hunger," he said.
The UN is calling for far more aid funding. Fletcher said humanitarians reached 17 million people in Sudan with support, and this year would 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.
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.