US Announces $200 Mn Additional Aid for Sudan

The war in Sudan has killed tens of thousands and displaced more than 11 million. AFP/File
The war in Sudan has killed tens of thousands and displaced more than 11 million. AFP/File
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US Announces $200 Mn Additional Aid for Sudan

The war in Sudan has killed tens of thousands and displaced more than 11 million. AFP/File
The war in Sudan has killed tens of thousands and displaced more than 11 million. AFP/File

The United States on Thursday announced $200 million of new funding for the humanitarian crisis in Sudan, bringing Washington's commitment to $2.3 billion, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday.
Sudan has been ravaged by 20 months of fighting between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and the African country has been identified as one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters, AFP reported.
The World Food Program warned Thursday that Sudan risks becoming the world's largest hunger crisis in recent history, with 1.7 million people across the country either facing famine or at risk of famine.
"We see too many Sudanese faces hunger, despair," Blinken said at a UN Security Council meeting on Sudan.
He lamented that political and military crises have "derailed Sudan's transition to democracy and unleashed what is the worst humanitarian crisis in the world."
"The United States has worked intensively with partners to provide relief to Sudan... today we are announcing another roughly $200 million," he added, noting that in some parts of Sudan, people are forced to eat grass and peanut shells to survive.
OCHA operations director Edem Wosornu told the Security Council $4.2 billion would be needed to support the needs of Sudan's people next year.
Fraction of aid need met
"The volume of humanitarian aid reaching people in need remains a fraction of what is required," Wosornu told the Council.
"Ultimately, the only way to end this cycle of violence, death and destruction is for this Council to rise to the challenge of delivering lasting peace in Sudan."
Nearly all of the vast Darfur region of western Sudan is now controlled by the RSF, which has also taken over swathes of the neighboring Kordofan region as well as much of the center of the country.
The regular army retains control of the north and east, while the capital Khartoum and its surrounding cities are a battleground between the warring parties.
As fighting rages on the ground, 10 Sudanese civilians were killed and 20 wounded in paramilitary shelling of North Darfur's besieged capital El-Fasher that hit the city's main hospital and other areas on Wednesday.
The war has killed tens of thousands and displaced more than 11 million, creating what the United Nations describes as one of the worst humanitarian disasters in recent memory.
Both the army and the RSF have been accused of indiscriminately bombing medical facilities and civilians, as well as deliberate attacks on residential areas.
"Footage abounds of forms of brutality that defy human consciousness and no person should have to bear witness to," Shayna Lewis, a Sudan expert at the non-governmental group Preventing and Ending Mass Atrocities, told the council.
"But this Council must demonstrate through action that the imperiled lives of 49 million Sudanese will not be abandoned to the whims of armed men."

 



Hundreds of Thousands Flee as Israel Seizes Rafah in New Gaza 'Security Zone'

A youth rides a bicycle as people commute along the al-Rashid road, the only route linking the northern and southern parts of the Palestinian territory, on April 2, 2025. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)
A youth rides a bicycle as people commute along the al-Rashid road, the only route linking the northern and southern parts of the Palestinian territory, on April 2, 2025. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)
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Hundreds of Thousands Flee as Israel Seizes Rafah in New Gaza 'Security Zone'

A youth rides a bicycle as people commute along the al-Rashid road, the only route linking the northern and southern parts of the Palestinian territory, on April 2, 2025. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)
A youth rides a bicycle as people commute along the al-Rashid road, the only route linking the northern and southern parts of the Palestinian territory, on April 2, 2025. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)

Hundreds of thousands of fleeing Gazans sought shelter on Thursday in one of the biggest mass displacements of the war, as Israeli forces advanced into the ruins of the city of Rafah, part of a newly announced "security zone" they intend to seize.

A day after declaring their intention to capture large swathes of the crowded enclave, Israeli force pushed into the city on Gaza's southern edge which had served as a last refuge for people fleeing other areas for much of the war, reported Reuters.

Gaza's health ministry reported at least 97 people killed in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours, including at least 20 killed in an airstrike around dawn in Shejaia suburb of Gaza City.

Rafah "is gone, it is being wiped out," a father of seven among the hundreds of thousands who had fled from Rafah to neighboring Khan Younis, told Reuters via a chat app.

"They are knocking down what is left standing of houses and property," said the man who declined to be identified for fear of repercussions.

After a strike killed several people in Khan Younis, Adel Abu Fakher was checking the damage to his tent.

"Is anything left for us? There’s nothing left for us. We’re being killed while asleep," he said.

The assault to capture Rafah is a major escalation in the war, which Israel restarted last month after effectively abandoning a ceasefire in place since January.

GAZANS FEAR PERMANENT DEPOPULATION

Israel has not spelled out its longterm aims for the security zone its troops are now seizing. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayahu said troops were taking an area he called the "Morag Axis", a reference to an abandoned former Israeli settlement once located between Rafah on Gaza's southern edge and the adjacent main southern city Khan Younis.

Gazans who had returned to homes in the ruins during the ceasefire have now been ordered to flee communities on the northern and southern edges of the strip.

They fear that Israel's intention is to depopulate those areas indefinitely, leaving many hundreds of thousands of people permanently homeless in one of the poorest and most crowded territories on earth. The security zone includes some of Gaza's last agricultural land and critical water infrastructure.

Since the first phase of the ceasefire expired at the start of March with no agreement to prolong it, Israel has imposed a total blockade on all goods reaching Gaza's 2.3 million residents, recreating what international organizations describe as a humanitarian catastrophe after weeks of relative calm.

Israel's stated goal since the start of the war has been the destruction of the Hamas group which ran Gaza for nearly two decades and led the attack on Israeli communities in October 2023 that precipitated the war.

But with no effort made to establish an alternative administration, Hamas-led police returned to the streets during the ceasefire. Fighters still hold 59 dead and living hostages which Israel says must be handed over to extend the truce; Hamas says it will free them only under a deal that ends the war.

Israeli leaders say they have been encouraged by signs of protest in Gaza against Hamas, with hundreds of people demonstrating in north Gaza's Beit Lahiya on Wednesday opposing the war and demanding Hamas quit power. Hamas calls the protesters collaborators and says Israel is behind them.

The war began with a Hamas attack on Israeli communities on October 7, 2023 with gunmen killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages according to Israeli tallies. Israel's campaign has so far killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, Gaza health authorities say.

Rafah residents said most of the local population had followed Israel's order to leave, as Israeli strikes toppled buildings there. But a strike on the main road between Khan Younis and Rafah stopped most movement between the two cities.

Movement of people and traffic along the western coastal road near Morag was also limited by bombardment, said residents.

"Others stayed because they don't know where to go, or got fed up of being displaced several times. We are afraid they might be killed or at best detained," said Basem, a resident of Rafah who declined to give a second name.

Markets have emptied and prices for basic necessities have soared under Israel's total blockade of food, medicine and fuel.

The Palestinian Health Ministry, which is based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank but has nominal authority over hospitals in Gaza, said Gaza's entire healthcare system was at risk of collapse.