WHO sounds warning on Sudan health crisis

GENEVA, Dec 30 (AFP): The WHO called for urgent action Friday to tackle the deepening health and humanitarian crises in Sudan and asked the international community to step up with financial aid.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization, said the majority of health facilities in Sudanese regions affected by the war were not working, due to the fighting.

Since April 15, Sudan has been gripped by a war pitting army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against his former deputy, paramilitary Rapid Support Forces commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

In Al-Jazira state, just south of Khartoum, more than half a million people had sought shelter after the fighting overwhelmed the Sudanese capital.

This month, however, paramilitaries pressed deeper into the state and shattered one of the country's few remaining sanctuaries, forcing more than 300,000 people to flee once again, the United Nations said.