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Huge shortfall in Sudan’s humanitarian aid budget, says UN

August 23, 2017 at 11:42 am

Food aid delivered in Sudan [Wikipedia]

Only a fraction of the $804 million the UN needs for humanitarian aid in Sudan has been received placing in danger millions of people requiring support, an UN official confirmed yesterday.

Speaking in a press conference in Khartoum, Marta Ruedas, the UN resident humanitarian coordinator, called on donors to provide more assistance to Sudan. She revealed that only 23 per cent of the aid for Sudan in 2017 had been raised. “We look forward to the continued generosity of donors to ensure that critical needs can be addressed in a timely manner,” Ruedas said.

Ruedas explained that just $182 million has been received by the United Nations and its aid agencies. Since the start of 2017 some 2.5 million people have received humanitarian aid in Sudan but the UN now say adjustments will have to be made to the number of people needing assistance due to the lack of funds. “It is difficult to prioritise given the limited resources,” Ruedas added.

Read: Sudan warns of massive floods as Nile rises to record levels

Hundreds of thousands of Sudanese people continue to live in camps since being displaced from their homes during the armed conflict which erupted in the western region of Darfur in 2003. Global donors have been providing funds to meet humanitarian needs in Sudan, with about $11 billion contributed since 2003, including $570 million in 2016.

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) have noted that violence in Darfur has reduced and new displacements have fallen significantly. Nevertheless, UNSC says the overall situation remains complicated with hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese refugees crossing into Sudan following civil war and famine in their country.

Some 416,000 South Sudanese have taken refuge in Sudan since December 2013 when a civil war erupted in South Sudan, less than three years after it separated from the north in 2011.