US adds $130 million to aid package for Sudan refugees

(CN) — The United States is providing a new $130 million aid package to support humanitarian needs from Sudan’s ongoing war.

The United States Agency for International Development announced the funding Wednesday during meetings of the United Nations General Assembly.

Sudan has been in a state of worsening civil war since fighting broke out on April 15 between the Sudanese Army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, derailing a Western-brokered transition to democracy after decades of military and authoritarian rule.  

About 25 million people need some sort of humanitarian assistance, USAID said, which is more than half its population of roughly 45 million.

Wednesday’s aid announcement builds on the $245 million that the U.S. committed in May and $163 million earlier this month for Sudan and its neighbors in Africa. In the current fiscal year, the U.S. has provided $840 million in humanitarian assistance in response to the conflict.

Al-Harith Idriss al-Harith Mohamed, Sudan’s representative to the U.N., said Wednesday that more than 5,000 people have been killed, 7,000 injured and more than 4 million displaced from the conflict.

Mohamed told a U.N. committee Wednesday that the country faces “a difficult situation” from the “war of aggression” launched by an “insurgent militia.”

“The government of Sudan has made tremendous efforts to facilitate the delivery of aid,” he said. “We hope that, with your collective efforts, Sudan will be able to put an end to the humanitarian suffering.”

While Mohamed cast the RSF as the sole perpetrator of atrocities, world leaders have criticized both sides of the conflict. USAID also accused the warring parties of interfering in humanitarian efforts by raiding facilities and instituting bureaucratic impediments.

“The parties must immediately and permanently cease hostilities, end interference in humanitarian operations, and facilitate safe and unhindered access for humanitarian staff and supplies to reach populations in need,” the agency said in a press release.

In its announcement, USAID said more than 4 million children need protection and that as many as 80% of hospitals are out of service from continued attacks on the facilities.

The aid will support humanitarian efforts for food assistance, health care, shelter, water and sanitation.

Recent reporting suggests the conflict might be getting wrapped into the war between Russia and Ukraine. CNN reported Tuesday that Ukrainian special forces hit targets of the Rapid Support Forces, which are allegedly being supported by the Russian Wagner Group paramilitary.

While the war in Ukraine has drawn significant international attention, Angola President Joao Manuel Goncalves Lourenco cautioned the U.N. General Assembly to not ignore wars in other parts of the world.

“The international community runs the risk of giving different treatment and privileged treatment to the conflict in Europe to the detriment of others because they are in the Middle East and Africa,” he said.

Sudanese Army General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan is scheduled to speak to the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday, but last week RSF leader Lieutenant General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, said, “We will not allow anyone to speak on behalf of Sudan and claim legitimacy.”

“[W]e aspire for the war to end through a peaceful political resolution,”  he said, “paving the way for the establishment of a legitimate civilian authority to govern the nation.”

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