The United States announced Sunday $81 million in humanitarian assistance to respond to the humanitarian crisis in Sudan.
US Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Mike Pompeo said that Washington has allocated the “humanitarian aid to the Sudanese people affected by the crisis the country is going through.”
In a press statement, Pompeo said the funding included more than $64 million from the US Agency for International Development’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance and $17 million from the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration.
Pompeo pointed out that the sum brought the total US humanitarian response for vulnerable people, including those affected by recent flooding as well as refugees and those displaced by conflict in Darfur, South Sudan, and elsewhere in the region to more than $436 million in Fiscal Year 2020, including for the COVID-19 humanitarian response.
“Sudan continues to confront a number of humanitarian challenges, including significant population displacement caused by inter-communal violence, which has endangered civilians and led to deteriorating humanitarian conditions,” he said, adding that the lingering effects of conflict, economic shocks, and recurrent environmental hazards, such as drought and the worst flooding in more than a century, have resulted in more than nine million people in need of humanitarian assistance.
“We will continue to promote unfettered humanitarian access throughout the country for humanitarian organizations, including unrestricted access to vulnerable people without requiring military or intelligence service involvement or permission,” he said.
His statement noted that the financial assistance would cover the fields of protection, shelter, essential healthcare, emergency food assistance, education, and water, sanitation, and hygiene services for refugees, internally displaced people, and vulnerable host communities.
“The United States will continue to stand with the people of the region as they work to build a brighter, more hopeful future, moving away from the conflicts of the past,” Pompeo said in his statement.
