The United States will provide nearly $172 million in additional humanitarian assistance to the people of Sudan and neighboring countries.
The outbreak of violence since April between two rival generals in Sudan has exacerbated a humanitarian crisis in the region. Fighting between troops loyal to Abdel-Fattah Burhan, commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces, the SAF, and to Mohamed Dagalo, leader of the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, has killed hundreds of people, injured thousands, displaced more than 1.4 million people within Sudan and nearly 500,000 people to neighboring countries.
The new funding will allow the U.S. government’s humanitarian partners to increase life-saving assistance to those with critical needs, including food, shelter, safe water, and medical care. It will also be used for protection services, including gender-based violence prevention and response, for the most vulnerable individuals.
Administered through USAID and the Department of State, the additional funding will bring the total U.S. humanitarian assistance to support the Sudan response to more than $550 million to date in Fiscal Year 2023. USAID Administrator Samantha Power noted that the surrounding countries and communities in Ethiopia, Egypt, Chad, and South Sudan have been “incredibly welcoming” to those fleeing the violence in Sudan. But they can only do so much because of their own needs and dependence on humanitarian assistance.
In order to facilitate aid, the U.S. calls on Sudanese authorities to remove what Secretary of State Antony Blinken called in a statement “the onerous bureaucratic and security restrictions that are hindering shipments of lifesaving aid.” He noted that supplies are being held at customs and routed through long, dangerous roads in order to reach communities affected by the violence, and that aid workers are unable to get the visas required to enter the country.
While the United States will continue to identify further ways to help the Sudanese people and those in need in the surrounding areas, Administrator Power was clear about the real solution: “The only fix for a humanitarian crisis of this gravity,” she said, “is political, is fundamentally the SAF and the RSF coming together, putting their guns away and finding a political way forward that ultimately hands power back to the people of Sudan.”
