US provides $92.5m in humanitarian assistance to S. Sudan

November 14, 2019 (JUBA) -The United States Government, through its aid arm (USAID) is providing $92.5 million in humanitarian assistance to help people affected by ongoing conflict and food insecurity in war-hit South Sudan.

The money, USAID said in a statement, will also cater for an estimated 908,000 people affected by severe flooding in the country in recent months.

“Floods have exacerbated conditions that were already very precarious for more than 900,000 people in South Sudan,” said US ambassador to South Sudan, Tom Hushek.

“We are supporting humanitarian organizations that are already responding with assistance in the worst-affected parts of Jonglei and Upper Nile, and will continue to provide lifesaving assistance to people in need in South Sudan,” he added.

This funding is reportedly helping USAID’s partner the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) continue to provide emergency food and nutrition assistance to vulnerable people in South Sudan, including in flood-affected areas.

As of early November, WFP said it had reached up to 400,000 of the more than 750,000 people in urgent need of food assistance in flood-affected areas of South Sudan.

Across South Sudan, however, more than 7 million people need humanitarian assistance, according to aid agencies.

The latest donation reportedly brings the US humanitarian assistance to the people of South Sudan since the country’s crisis began in mid-December 2013 to nearly $4.68 billion.

(ST)