U.S Announces Humanitarian Assistance for the Crisis Response in Sudan
The United States announced $81 million in humanitarian assistance to respond to the humanitarian crisis in Sudan. This funding includes more than $64 million from the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance and $17 million from the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. It brings the total U.S. humanitarian response for vulnerable people, including those affected by recent flooding as well as refugees and those displaced by conflict in Darfur, South Sudan, and elsewhere in the region to more than $436 million in Fiscal Year 2020, including for the COVID-19 humanitarian response.
Sudan continues to confront a number of humanitarian challenges, including significant population displacement caused by intercommunal violence, which has endangered civilians and led to deteriorating humanitarian conditions. The lingering effects of conflict, economic shocks, and recurrent environmental hazards, such as drought and the worst flooding in more than a century, have resulted in more than nine million people in need of humanitarian assistance. We will continue to promote unfettered humanitarian access throughout the country for humanitarian organizations, including unrestricted access to vulnerable people without requiring military or intelligence service involvement or permission.
With this funding, the United States will continue to deliver assistance to crisis-affected people in Sudan. This assistance will provide critical protection, shelter, essential healthcare, emergency food assistance, education, and water, sanitation, and hygiene services for refugees, internally displaced people, and vulnerable host communities.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this protracted humanitarian crisis. To answer these increased needs, the United States has provided more than $33 million in humanitarian assistance for the COVID-19 response in Sudan to bolster support of crisis-affected people and host communities.
In concert with this life-saving assistance, the United States will work with Sudan and others in the region to continue to create the conditions for peace and end decades of instability. The United States will continue to stand with the people of the region as they work to build a brighter, more hopeful future, moving away from the conflicts of the past.
The United States remains the largest single donor of humanitarian assistance, both in Sudan and globally. We appreciate all donors who have stepped up and call on others to do so transparently through the UN-coordinated international response to help the people affected by crisis in Sudan.
