UN projects over $3bn for aid in Sudan
UN urges $3 bn aid for Sudan and refugees
Over $3bn aid is requires in Sudan, Sudanese refugees – UN
The United Nations said $3.03 billion would be needed to provide urgent aid in conflict-ravaged Sudan and for over one million expected to flee into neighbouring countries this year.
Needs have soared since a bloody conflict erupted in Sudan last month, the UN said, dramatically revising up its response plan.
Ramesh Rajasingham, head of the UN humanitarian agency’s Geneva bureau, said “Today, 25 million people, more than half the population of Sudan, need humanitarian aid and protection.”
“That is the highest number we have ever seen in the country.”
Battles erupted on April 15 between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who leads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Around 1,000 people have been killed, mainly in and around Khartoum as well as the ravaged state of West Darfur, according to medics.
The fighting has deepened the humanitarian crisis in Sudan, where one in three people already relied on humanitarian assistance before the war.
The UN said a full $2.56 billion is now expected to be needed to provide assistance inside Sudan up from the $1.75 billion estimated at the end of last year.
Rajasingham said those funds will allow aid agencies to reach 18 million of the most vulnerable people inside the country.
At the same time, the UN refugee agency said $470.4 million would be needed to assist those fleeing the country, adding that it was now planning for up to 1.1 million people to cross out of Sudan this year alone.
UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said it would need $445 million through October to address the needs of as many as 860,000 people who might flee the country.
“So far, the crisis, which has just started a month ago, resulted in massive outflows into neighbouring countries of about 220,000 refugees and returnees who have been seeking safety in Chad, South Sudan, Egypt, Central African Republic and Ethiopia,” Raouf Mezou, assistant chief of operations at the UN refugee agency UNHCR told reporters.
In addition, more than 700,000 people have been displaced inside Sudan by the fighting.
Mezou said, “Countless people remain trapped and terrified inside Sudan, innocent victims of this indiscriminate fighting.’’
At the same time, “those who have fled across the country’s many borders are shattered, often having left behind or lost loved ones and finding themselves in places where access is extremely hard and resources are minimal.”
