Liam Neeson, who visited Sudan as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, has hit out at aid cuts to the war-torn country which risks leaving millions of children to starve
Hollywood actor Liam Neeson has condemned aid cuts to poor countries after visiting South Sudan. Neeson, a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, spent six days in the landlocked country meeting the mothers of children facing starvation.
An estimated 2.3 million children in the war ravaged country are currently at risk of severe malnutrition, with nearly half of those at risk of dying if not treated immediately. But funding cuts by richer countries has resulted in the closure of 186 nutrition treatment sites, leaving vulnerable families without vital services.
Neeson said: “I was deeply saddened by seeing so many malnourished children. They are hauntingly quiet when they should be laughing, sleeping when they should be playing, crying when they should be smiling.
READ MORE: Russian-Ukraine war could spark next pandemic as ‘breeding ground for disease X’READ MORE: Sudanese asylum seeker guilty of murdering hotel worker at UK railway station
“With treatment sites closing around the country, I ask myself what will happen to those children?”
Unicef, which is expecting a 20% drop in funding over the next four years, says currently there are only five social workers for every 100,000 children. The actor, who also met young girls forced into marriage, added: “The world cannot turn its back on children like those I met in South Sudan
“Funding cuts are threatening lifesaving programmes for children across the world. We either stand with them now or watch their future slip away.”
For the past two and a half years, a brutal civil war has raged in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The conflict has led to more than 150,000 reported deaths while 12 million have been displaced by the savage violence.
Earlier this year, US authorities declared genocide was being committed in Darfur amid reports that the Rapid Support Forces were systemically wiping out the non-Arab population in the area.
American then-Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in January this year: “The RSF and allied militias have systematically murdered men and boys – even infants – on an ethnic basis, and deliberately targeted women and girls from certain ethnic groups for rape and other forms of brutal sexual violence.
“Those same militias have targeted fleeing civilians, murdering innocent people escaping conflict, and prevented remaining civilians from accessing lifesaving supplies.
“Based on this information, I have now concluded that members of the RSF and allied militias have committed genocide in Sudan.”
The US subsequently placed sanctions on General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the leader of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Similar sanctions were placed on the head of Sudan’s army and de facto president, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.
Follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.