Blinken announces $200m in humanitarian aid for Sudan at UN Security Council

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks with Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Representative of the United States during a UN Security Council meeting on Sudan at the UN headquarters in New York on December 19, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 19 December 2024
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Blinken announces $200m in humanitarian aid for Sudan at UN Security Council

  • World Food Program warned that Sudan risked becoming the world’s largest hunger crisis

NEW YORK: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday announced $200 million in additional aid for Sudan at a United Nations Security Council meeting. 

The package will include food, shelter, and healthcare, in response to the ongoing conflict that has caused tens of thousands of deaths and the world’s largest displacement crisis.

During the session, Blinken emphasized the need for aid to be delivered safely and quickly to those in need.

He also pledged to use all available tools, including sanctions, to prevent abuses in Sudan and hold perpetrators accountable, urging others to adopt similar measures.

The UN says that nearly 25 million people in Sudan require aid, with famine affecting displacement camps.

Since the war began in April 2023, amid a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), 11 million people have been displaced, including 3 million who fled to other countries.

Also on Thursday, the World Food Program warned that Sudan risked becoming the world’s largest hunger crisis in recent history, and the only place globally currently where famine has been confirmed.

A spokesperson said some 4.7 million children under age of five were suffering from severe malnutrition in the country.


The art of war: fears for masterpieces on loan to Louvre Abu Dhabi

Updated 13 March 2026
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The art of war: fears for masterpieces on loan to Louvre Abu Dhabi

  • UAE paid more than €1 billion to borrow priceless works, but experts in France want them back

PARIS: The Middle East war has raised fears for the safety of priceless masterpieces on loan from France to the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the museum’s only foreign branch.
The Abu Dhabi museum, which opened in 2017, has so far escaped damage from nearly 1,800 Iranian drone and missile strikes launched since the conflict erupted on Feb. 28.
However, concerns are mounting in France. “The works must be removed,” said Didier Selles, who helped broker the original agreement between France and the UAE.
French journal La Tribune de l’Art echoed that alarm. “The Louvre’s works in Abu Dhabi must be secured!” it said.
France’s culture ministry said French authorities were “in close and regular contact with the authorities of the UAE to ensure the protection of the works loaned by France.”
Under the agreement with the UAE, France agreed to provide expertise, lend works of art and organize exhibitions, in return for €1 billion, including €400 million for licensing the use of the Louvre name. The deal was extended in 2021 to 2047 for an additional €165 million.
Works on loan include paintings by Rembrandt and Chardin, Classical statues of Isis, Roman sarcophagi and Islamic masterpieces: such as the Pyxis of Al-Mughira.

A Louvre Abu Dhabi source said the museum was designed to protect collections from both security threats and natural disasters.