GENEVA: The United Nations said Wednesday that $3.03 billion would be needed to provide urgent aid to people in conflict-ravaged Sudan and to over one million expected to flee into neighboring countries this year.
Needs have soared since a bloody conflict erupted in Sudan on April 15, the UN said, revising up its response plan for the country.
“Today, 25 million people — more than half the population of Sudan — needs humanitarian aid and protection,” Ramesh Rajasingham, head of the UN humanitarian agency’s Geneva bureau, told reporters.
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.
Those funds will allow aid agencies to reach 18 million of the most vulnerable people inside the country, Rajasingham said.
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.
Just two weeks ago, UNHCR had 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 neighboring countries of about 220,000 refugees and returnees who have been seeking safety in Chad, South Sudan, Egypt, Central African Republic and Ethiopia,” Raouf Mazou, 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.
“Countless people remain trapped and terrified inside Sudan, innocent victims of this indiscriminate fighting,” Mazou said.
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.”
More than $3bn needed for aid in Sudan, Sudanese refugees: UN
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More than $3bn needed for aid in Sudan, Sudanese refugees: UN
- Needs have soared since a bloody conflict erupted in Sudan on April 15
- Around 1,000 people have been killed, mainly in and around Khartoum
Seven killed in drone strike on Sudan hospital: medical source
- Dilling, in the flashpoint state of South Kordofan, is controlled by the Sudanese army but has been under siege by rival paramilitary forces
- Sunday’s strike comes a day after a drone strike on a UN peacekeeping base killed six Bangladeshi troops in the similarly besieged South Kordofan state capital of Kadugli
PORT SUDAN: A drone strike Sunday on an army hospital in the besieged southern Sudan city of Dilling left “seven civilians dead and 12 injured,” a health worker at the facility told AFP.
The victims included patients and their companions, the medic said on condition of anonymity, explaining that the army hospital “serves the residents of the city and its surroundings, in addition to military personnel.”
Dilling, in the flashpoint state of South Kordofan, is controlled by the Sudanese army but has been under siege by rival paramilitary forces.
Since April 2023, the army has been at war with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who control swathes of the greater Kordofan region along with their allies, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) faction led by Abdelaziz Al-Hilu.
Sunday’s strike comes a day after a drone strike on a United Nations peacekeeping base killed six Bangladeshi troops in the similarly besieged South Kordofan state capital of Kadugli, some 120 kilometers (75 miles) south of Dilling.
According to the UN, civilians in Dilling are suffering famine conditions, but a lack of access to data has prevented an official declaration.
Across the country, the war has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced 12 million and created the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises.
