UN Appeal Seeks to Raise $3 billion for Sudan

Martin Griffiths visited Port Sudan on Wednesday. (Reuters)
Martin Griffiths visited Port Sudan on Wednesday. (Reuters)
TT
20

UN Appeal Seeks to Raise $3 billion for Sudan

Martin Griffiths visited Port Sudan on Wednesday. (Reuters)
Martin Griffiths visited Port Sudan on Wednesday. (Reuters)

The United Nations and its partners on Wednesday called for a record $3 billion aid to help millions of people in Sudan, where the conflict between the national army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is now in its second month.

As the death toll mounts, humanitarian needs soar, and displacement grows, the UN is launching two response plans to provide food, health care, shelter, protection, and other critical assistance.

The Humanitarian Response Plan for Sudan has been revised due to the soaring needs spurred by the current crisis. It now requires $2.56 billion, an increase of $800 million from just a few months ago, to help 18 million people until the end of this year, making it the largest appeal ever issued for Sudan.

The Sudan Regional Refugee Response Plan seeks $470.4 million to support refugees, returnees, and host communities in the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, and South Sudan. The funds are intended to help over 1 million people.

“This conflict is a cruel blow for the people of Sudan, already staggering under the weight of a desperate humanitarian situation. The desire, willingness, and impatience of humanitarian agencies to deliver remain as strong as ever,” said Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths.

He added that the signing of the Declaration of Commitment last week in Jeddah “was a welcome first step towards protecting civilians and delivering aid safely. But now we need the generosity of the international community to scale up our response and reach all those in need.”

UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, said: “More than a month into this crisis, countless people remain terrified inside Sudan, and those who have fled across the country’s many borders are in need of help, often finding themselves in places where access is extremely hard, and resources strained.”

“Humanitarians are working hard to respond but we need – once again - to call on countries and individuals with the means, to step up and provide the resources so we can help people who have lost everything.”

The most recent fighting has already displaced more than 840,000 people inside Sudan. Over 220,000 refugees and refugee returnees have fled the country, with many Sudanese escaping to Chad and Egypt, and South Sudanese refugees returning home in adverse conditions. Without an urgent resolution, many more will be forced to flee in search of safety and basic assistance.

The revised Humanitarian Response Plan will focus on swiftly ramping up food and water and sanitation and other lifesaving assistance. It will also increase its focus on protection, including the protection of children and the prevention of gender-based violence.

The Plan, bringing together 92 partners, envisions the expansion of operations in areas where fighting is fierce, such as the capital, Khartoum, as well as locations to which many people have fled to escape violence, including West, South and North Darfur.

Implementing the scale-up will require humanitarian agencies to have safe access to reach those in need.

The Refugee Response Plan will help host countries to coordinate the response with a “whole-of-society” approach in support of host governments and communities.

The UN Spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, told correspondents at the regular briefing in New York that the World Health Organization (WHO) had managed to deliver 30 tons of medical supplies to Al-Jazirah state, while trauma supplies to treat 2,400 people were delivered Wednesday to five hospitals there, and three hospitals in the capital, Khartoum.

“WHO also supports the delivery of critical items to its partners and has additional supplies in the pipeline,” he said.

Meanwhile, aid organizations have managed to resume operations in parts of Darfur, he confirmed.

“For example, in North Darfur, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has helped deliver some 235,000 liters of clean water to eight healthcare facilities and one nutrition center. UNICEF is also distributing water, sanitation, and health supplies for nearly 15,700 patients at more than a dozen healthcare facilities”, the Spokesperson said.

And in Eastern Darfur, UNICEF has provided clean water to some 40,000 people in the Elneem camp for internally displaced people.



Israeli Fire Kills 30 in Gaza, Medics Say, as Attention Shifts to Iran 

Palestinians carry sacks and boxes of food and humanitarian aid unloaded from a World Food Program convoy that had been heading to Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, June 16, 2025. (AP)
Palestinians carry sacks and boxes of food and humanitarian aid unloaded from a World Food Program convoy that had been heading to Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, June 16, 2025. (AP)
TT
20

Israeli Fire Kills 30 in Gaza, Medics Say, as Attention Shifts to Iran 

Palestinians carry sacks and boxes of food and humanitarian aid unloaded from a World Food Program convoy that had been heading to Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, June 16, 2025. (AP)
Palestinians carry sacks and boxes of food and humanitarian aid unloaded from a World Food Program convoy that had been heading to Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, June 16, 2025. (AP)

Israeli gunfire and strikes killed at least 30 people across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, local health authorities said, as some Palestinians there said their plight was being forgotten as attention shifted to the air war between Israel and Iran.

The deaths included the latest in near daily killings of Palestinians seeking aid in the three weeks since Israel partially lifted a total blockade on Gaza that it had imposed for almost three months.

Medics said separate airstrikes on homes in the Maghazi refugee camp and Zeitoun neighborhood in central and northern Gaza killed at least 14 people, while five others were killed in an airstrike on a tent encampment in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

Eleven others were killed in Israeli fire at crowds of displaced Palestinians awaiting aid trucks brought in by the United Nations along the Salahuddin road in central Gaza, medics said.

The Israel army said it was looking into the reported deaths of people waiting for food. Regarding the other strikes, it said it was "operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities" and "feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm."

On Tuesday, Gaza's health ministry said 397 Palestinians among those trying to get food aid had been killed and more than 3,000 wounded since aid deliveries restarted in late May.

Some in Gaza expressed concern that the latest escalations in the war between Israel and Hamas that began in October 2023 would be overlooked as the focus moved to Israel's five-day-old conflict with Iran.

"People are being slaughtered in Gaza, day and night, but attention has shifted to the Iran-Israel war. There is little news about Gaza these days," said Adel, a resident of Gaza City.

"Whoever doesn't die from Israeli bombs dies from hunger. People risk their lives every day to get food, and they also get killed and their blood smears the sacks of flour they thought they had won," he told Reuters via a chat app.

'FORGOTTEN'

Israel has been channeling much of the aid it is now allowing into Gaza through a new US- and Israeli-backed group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which operates a handful of distribution sites in areas guarded by Israeli forces.

It has said it will continue to allow aid into Gaza, home to more than 2 million people, while ensuring aid doesn't get into the hands of Hamas. Hamas denies seizing aid, saying Israel uses hunger as a weapon against the population in Gaza.

The Gaza war was triggered when Hamas-led fighters attacked Israel in October 2023, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli allies.

US ally Israel's subsequent military assault on Gaza has killed nearly 55,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry, displaced almost all the territory's residents, and caused a severe hunger crisis.

The assault has led to accusations of genocide and war crimes, which Israel denies.

Palestinians in Gaza have been closely following Israel's air war with Iran, long a major supporter of Hamas.

"We are maybe happy to see Israel suffer from Iranian rockets, but at the end of the day, one more day in this war costs the lives of tens of innocent people," said 47-year-old Shaban Abed, a father of five from northern Gaza.

"We just hope that a comprehensive solution could be reached to end the war in Gaza, too. We are being forgotten," he said.