Aid leader blasts world for ignoring Sudan: ‘What’s it going to take?’

You can't walk into a situation like that and not feel intense grief and despair, but also a level of rage. Rage over what Canadian humanitarian Samantha Nutt witnessed during three weeks in Sudan. The suffering there, the world's worst humanitarian crisis fueled by a brutal civil war and, Nutt says, failure by the international community. What is it going to take? How many Sudanese, mostly women and children, have to die, have to suffer, have to struggle before anything happens? Nutt, founder of children's aid organization War Child, recently returned, only just beginning to process what she saw. It's just a vast expanse of charred ruin and nothingness. She shows us videos of what remains of Khartoum. This was before a once bustling capital and economic hub. And this hollowed out ruin is now. Devastation on a scale that I have never witnessed in 30 years of going in and out of war zones. After so many years of doing this, did you think it was even possible to see something worse than what you've already seen? No, I didn't. Every single building has large holes in it from artillery fire. Or they are, the buildings themselves are charred, there are bullet holes everywhere that you look. It appears that you're driving for a while through different areas and you don't see a single human. Three and a half million people. Vacated Khartoum, it's heartbreaking. These were people's lives, and hope, and optimism, and ambition, and it's completely destroyed. You think to yourself, how did we get here? How did Sudan get here? The answer to that is rooted in this three years of a catastrophic civil war between the Sudanese armed forces and a paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces or RSF guilty of genocide says the US. The fighting prolonged by regional countries accused of arming either side in a competition for Sudan's natural resources. This is a war that has tremendous international tentacles here. Why we're not paying attention to it is It's not so much a mystery but it is a a missed opportunity and it is one that millions of Sudanese are paying the price for every day. More than 12 million people have been forced from their homes with more than 19 million now facing acute hunger. Rampant sexual violence has terrorized women and girls say aid agencies and adding to all that Nutt says are relentless drone attacks. I think about The constant fear that they're still living under, you hear those little girls who have gone through the worst atrocities and all they really want is an opportunity to rebuild. That's where Nut is trying to help. Her organization works with local partners to support two schools just outside of Khartoum. They open the doors and you feel as if you have entered a different planet. Suddenly you're immersed in this place of curiosity and laughter and music and ambition. How many in the room want to be a doctor when they get older? Very good, Dr. Moon. This is what that rare happy place looks like. If there's a glimmer of hope in this crisis, says Nutt, it's in these faces. Hundreds of students, girls and boys. Most living in nearby displacement camps. Only just returning to school this fall after being out since the start of the war. The active fighting in this area has subsided for now. Dreams still precarious but again feel possible. When you see these girls Obviously they're in the most horrible circumstances, which makes these smiling faces so striking. It takes a lot for me to feel weepy in these situations, and that paradox is so enormous. That even for me, I found it really hard. You can't look at them and not see the future of their country. And all they really need is the kind of investment that will allow them to continue to reach those heights. And what if they don't get it? If they don't get it, then we see more of what's on the outside of that building. That's Nutt's great fear, that the suffering will remain intractable. Canada has pledged hundreds of millions in aid since the war began. But the level of care, says Nutt, doesn't come close to the level of crisis. Why do you think this crisis gets less attention than others? I don't know why. We find some people living with war to be more worthy of attention and support than others. And this is something that you hear on the ground. Sudanese people will say, why not us? Why Gaza? Why Ukraine? Why are their lives worth people's attention and sympathy and ours are not? And what do you say to that? What would your message be to Canada's government? Sudan is a crisis that needs and deserves our attention. It needs our aid commitments, not just to short-term humanitarian aid, but also to begin to support recovery. It needs longer-term investments. There needs to be effort on the part of Western governments in particular to put pressure on the peace process to reach a lasting settlement. There is a lot that we can and should be doing because failing to do that, I think, is a stain on our conscience.