CAIRO: The US announced more than $47 million in humanitarian aid for war-torn Sudan and two neighboring countries, to where at least a million people have fled in the nearly 1-year-old conflict.
The aid package is expected to help alleviate the suffering of nearly 25 million people, including refugees who have fled the country into Chad and South Sudan, according to a statement Wednesday from the US State Department.
“This US humanitarian assistance provides critical life-saving assistance including food, water and sanitation facilities, shelter, medical services including mental health support, and protection to Sudanese fleeing the conflict,” it said.
The fresh funds bring to more than $968 million the total US humanitarian aid for Sudan since last year, the statement said.
Sudan plunged into chaos last April, when long-simmering tensions between its military led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo broke out into street battles in the capital, Khartoum. Thousands have been killed.
More than 9 million people are thought to be internally displaced in Sudan, and 1.5 million refugees have fled into neighboring countries.
The US relief funds were announced by Assistant Secretary for Population, Refugees, and Migration Julieta Valls Noyes during a meeting in N’Djamena with Chadian Prime Minister Succès Masra, whose country will receive $18 million of the entire package, according to a statement posted by the US Population, Refugees and Migration Bureau on the social platform X, formerly known as twitter.
Chad alone has received nearly 700,000 people from Sudan since the conflict erupted, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council.
The US seized the opportunity to renew its calls on warring parties to end hostilities. “Preventing a famine and long-term catastrophe will require both a ceasefire and unhindered humanitarian access,” the statement said.
The US announcement came the same day the UN director of humanitarian operations, Edem Wosornu, told the Security Council that Sudan might become the world’s worst hunger crisis with 18 million people already facing acute food insecurity. She stressed the need for humanitarian aid complaining that the UN appeal for $2.7 billion for Sudan was less than 5 percent funded — receiving just $131 million.
US announces over $47 million in humanitarian aid for war-torn Sudan
https://arab.news/j3kgp
US announces over $47 million in humanitarian aid for war-torn Sudan
- Fresh funds bring to more than $968 million the total US humanitarian aid for Sudan since last year
First responders enter devastated Aleppo neighborhood after days of deadly fighting
- The US-backed SDF, which have played a key role in combating the Daesh group in large swaths of eastern Syria, are the largest force yet to be absorbed into Syria’s national army
ALEPPO, Syria: First responders on Sunday entered a contested neighborhood in Syria’ s northern city of Aleppo after days of deadly clashes between government forces and Kurdish-led forces. Syrian state media said the military was deployed in large numbers.
The clashes broke out Tuesday in the predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Achrafieh and Bani Zaid after the government and the Syrian Democratic Forces, the main Kurdish-led force in the country, failed to make progress on how to merge the SDF into the national army. Security forces captured Achrafieh and Bani Zaid.
The fighting between the two sides was the most intense since the fall of then-President Bashar Assad to insurgents in December 2024. At least 23 people were killed in five days of clashes and more than 140,000 were displaced amid shelling and drone strikes.
The US-backed SDF, which have played a key role in combating the Daesh group in large swaths of eastern Syria, are the largest force yet to be absorbed into Syria’s national army. Some of the factions that make up the army, however, were previously Turkish-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.
The Kurdish fighters have now evacuated from the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood to northeastern Syria, which is under the control of the SDF. However, they said in a statement they will continue to fight now that the wounded and civilians have been evacuated, in what they called a “partial ceasefire.”
The neighborhood appeared calm Sunday. The United Nations said it was trying to dispatch more convoys to the neighborhoods with food, fuel, blankets and other urgent supplies.
Government security forces brought journalists to tour the devastated area, showing them the damaged Khalid Al-Fajer Hospital and a military position belonging to the SDF’s security forces that government forces had targeted.
The SDF statement accused the government of targeting the hospital “dozens of times” before patients were evacuated. Damascus accused the Kurdish-led group of using the hospital and other civilian facilities as military positions.
On one street, Syrian Red Crescent first responders spoke to a resident surrounded by charred cars and badly damaged residential buildings.
Some residents told The Associated Press that SDF forces did not allow their cars through checkpoints to leave.
“We lived a night of horror. I still cannot believe that I am right here standing on my own two feet,” said Ahmad Shaikho. “So far the situation has been calm. There hasn’t been any gunfire.”
Syrian Civil Defense first responders have been disarming improvised mines that they say were left by the Kurdish forces as booby traps.
Residents who fled are not being allowed back into the neighborhood until all the mines are cleared. Some were reminded of the displacement during Syria’s long civil war.
“I want to go back to my home, I beg you,” said Hoda Alnasiri.
