India, Feb. 18 -- The United Nations launched an appeal for $6 billion to avert a humanitarian catastrophe in famine-hit Sudan.
More than one in two people in the war-torn country have too little to eat, famine "is taking hold" and sexual violence is rife, the UN's top aid official said on Monday.
"Civilians [are] paying the highest price, shelling, airstrikes [are] continuing unabated, killing and injuring civilians, damaging and destroying critical infrastructure, including hospitals," said Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher.
"An epidemic of sexual violence rages," he warned, adding that children are being killed and injured, amid reports of intensifying fighting in South Kordofan in recent weeks - another state in which famine ...