UN agency seeks $4.1 billion to help Sudanese civilians and refugees fleeing country’s 10-month war

The U.N. humanitarian aid and refugee agency on Wednesday called on the international community to provide $4.1 billion in support for Sudan’s embattled civilians amid signs that some may starve to death after nearly a year of war between rival generals’ armies. .

In a joint appeal, UNHCR, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said half of Sudan’s population, or about 25 million people, needed support and protection. They said the requested funds would be used to help millions of Sudanese civilians and others who have fled abroad.

They have lost so much. ” Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, recently met with displaced families in Sudan and neighboring Ethiopia. “Time and time again we hear the same message from them: We want peace so we can return. Home, we need support to rebuild our lives. Grandi added they desperately need help and they need it now.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs organizes aid operations in Sudan that are often troubled. It calls on the United Nations and its partners to provide $2.7 billion to help some 14.7 million people. The UN refugee agency is seeking $1.4 billion to help nearly 2.7 million people who have fled to five neighboring countries. OCHA Director Martin Griffiths said the office appealed for nearly $2.6 billion last year, but less than half was funded.

U.N. officials are urging the world to pay attention to the suffering caused by painful conflicts in places like Sudan, Congo, Afghanistan and Myanmar, and to ensure that wars in Ukraine and Gaza do not overshadow the needs of civilians elsewhere around the world. The United Nations says Sudan’s war has killed at least 12,000 people, but local doctors’ groups say the true toll is much higher. According to the United Nations migration agency, more than 10.7 million people have been displaced.

The United Nations World Food Program says some 18 million people currently face severe hunger across Sudan, with the most desperate trapped on the front lines of the conflict. The United Nations says about 19 million children are out of school. In mid-April, tensions between military chief General Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces commander General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo escalated, with protests in the capital Khartoum and Open fighting broke out elsewhere in the country, and Sudan descended into chaos.

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from associated news agency – PTI)