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‘The people of Sudan are facing the worst humanitarian crisis in the world,’ US Ambassador to UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield says.
The US announced Thursday more than $200 million in additional humanitarian assistance for civilians in Sudan and for those who fled to neighboring countries.
The assistance includes more than $178 million from the State Department and nearly $25 million through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
“The people of Sudan are facing the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. Much more needs to be done to help them. I’m proud to announce that the United States is providing an additional $203 million in humanitarian funding to support people in Sudan, Chad, Egypt, and South Sudan affected by this brutal conflict,” US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters. “We hope this new round of aid serves as a call to action for others to follow suit.”
Noting that the Eritrean border crossing, one of the most important in terms of humanitarian aid, is still closed, she said: “This obstruction is completely unacceptable.”
The conflict in Sudan erupted in April 2023, when army Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo disagreed on whether the RSF should be integrated into the military.
The conflict has killed nearly 16,000 victims, displaced millions and caused a humanitarian crisis, according to the UN.
Today, the United States, through the USAID and U.S. Department of State, announced an additional $203 million in additional urgent humanitarian assistance for the people of Sudan. The funding includes nearly $25 million from USAID and more than $178 million from the U.S. Department of State to support food, protection, health, nutrition, shelter, cash, and agriculture assistance. The funding will also help provide training and other support to small business owners, and market-based assistance for vulnerable people, including refugees and internally displaced persons. U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield announced the funding following a meeting on Sudan at the U.S. Mission to the UN in New York.
This announcement comes less than one month after the release of a report on the historic levels of food insecurity in Sudan, with 25.6 million people in urgent need of food assistance, including 755,000 people on the brink of starvation. Fourteen areas of the country face a risk of Famine, largely driven by obstruction of humanitarian assistance by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Despite the ongoing obstruction of aid, humanitarian organizations continue to provide critical assistance throughout the country. This new funding will support U.S. partners inside of Sudan and in the neighboring countries to continue to scale up and sustain response capacity and to help avoid breaks in the delivery of life-saving relief for the most vulnerable.
The United States continues to stand with the people of Sudan and calls for other donors to step forward in the face of historic humanitarian needs. The SAF and RSF must immediately return to the negotiating table to end this war that has caused so much suffering for the people of Sudan.