​​​​​​​KHARTOUM, Sudan

More than 20,000 people have been killed in the ongoing conflict in Sudan between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group since April 2023, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Sunday.

Speaking at a press conference in Port Sudan during a two-day visit to Sudan, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said 10 more million people have been internally displaced in addition to two million refugees in neighboring countries.

"The scale of the emergency is shocking, as is the insufficient action being taken to curtail the conflict and respond to the suffering it is causing,” he said.

He said almost half of Sudan’s 25 million population needs urgent intervention while 70% of the country’s health sector is no longer operational.

The WHO chief called on the "world to wake up and help Sudan out of the nightmare it is living through.”

On Saturday, Ghebreyesus reiterated the WHO's commitment to addressing the pressing humanitarian and health issues in Sudan, including insecurity, mass displacement, floods, famine, and disease outbreaks.

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi