The United States will provide an additional $203 million ($302 million Australian dollars) to help the millions of civilians affected by the war in Sudan, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said on Thursday, calling on other countries to step up their assistance.
The funds, announced in a statement to Reuters on Thursday, are intended to help civilians in Sudan and those who have fled to neighboring countries since the outbreak of war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April 2023.
If the war escalates, there is now a real risk of famine in 14 areas of Sudan, a global observer said last month. The United Nations World Food Programme has described the worsening hunger crisis as the worst in the world.
The additional U.S. money brings the total amount of American assistance to Sudanese civilians in Sudan, Chad, Egypt and South Sudan since October to $707 million ($1.1 billion Australian dollars), a U.S. official said. The U.S. is the largest single donor of the aid effort.
“The people of Sudan are facing the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. Much more needs to be done to help them,” said Thomas-Greenfield, who visited the Chad-Sudan border in September to meet with war refugees.
“We hope this new round of aid will be a call to action for others.”
The war, sparked by a plan to integrate the army and paramilitary forces into the transition to free elections, has unleashed waves of ethnic violence, for which the RSF is largely blamed. The RSF denies harming civilians and attributes the activities to rogues.
According to the UN, nearly 25 million people – half of Sudan’s population – are in need of assistance, famine is imminent and 10 million people have fled their homes. More than 2.2 million of these people have fled to other countries.
The US claims the warring parties have committed war crimes and the RSF and its allied militias have also committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing. A Reuters report last month included an analysis of satellite images showing that cemeteries were expanding rapidly as hunger and disease spread.
“Yes, the Sudanese people need much more humanitarian assistance, but the parties on the ground must also facilitate humanitarian access,” Thomas-Greenfield said. He added that the US was prepared to push for more UN Security Council action “to ensure that assistance reaches those who need it most when needed.”
In March, the 15-member council passed a resolution calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities, the removal of obstacles to aid and the protection of civilians. In June, it passed a second resolution calling for an end to the siege of a city of 1.8 million people in Sudan’s North Darfur region.