U.S. provides $68m humanitarian aid to Sudan

April 1, 2016 (KHARTOUM) – The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has granted an emergency assistance to the internally displaced Sudanese and South Sudanese refugees who fled violence in their country.

The USAID “is providing nearly $68 million for emergency food assistance, to reach approximately 2.5 million Sudanese as well as refugees from South Sudan and other neighbouring states,” said a statement released on Friday in Washington.

The humanitarian assistance will be delivered through the world’s largest humanitarian agency, the World Food Program (WFP) which is actively working with the local and international aid groups in the Two Areas, Darfur region but also in eastern Sudan where El Niño event affects this region.

”This contribution brings total U.S. humanitarian assistance for Sudan to nearly $351 million since FY 2015,” said the statement adding that Sudan has the third-highest prevalence of malnutrition in the world.

This humanitarian assistance will support fortified foods for malnourished children under age 5 and pregnant or lactating women, emergency school feeding programs and food distributions to the most vulnerable and food-insecure populations, the USAID underlined.

Since 2011, USAID has provided over $1 billion in food and nutrition assistance in Sudan.

UN OCHA office in Sudan said this week that South Sudanese continue to arrive massively in Sudan from Bahr el Ghazal region fleeing hunger.

For the last two months, over 48,000 South Sudanese have arrived in East Darfur, South Darfur and West Kordofan states since late January 2016, OCHA said on Thursday.

Previously, some 190,000 South Sudanese arrived in Sudan, due to the eruption of an armed conflict in December 2013.

Also there are some 2.5 million displaced people in Darfur and another 1.7 million are displaced by conflict in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states.

(ST)