UN appeals for $477 million for refugees in Sudan

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has appealed for $477 million to help more than 900,000 refugees in Sudan, in addition to nearly a quarter of a million of their Sudanese hosts this year.

“Sudan has a long history of hosting refugees and asylum seekers but also struggles with its own internal displacement, while facing a severe economic crisis. Our call comes at a time when the country is going through a historical political transition, and requires international solidarity to achieve peace and stability,” UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch announced during a press briefing in Geneva.

In a report titled “Long way home for displaced Sudanese as fears of insecurity persist” released on Tuesday, the UNHCR explained that along with over 30 partners, they launched a humanitarian plan including strengthening the local infrastructure, education, health, nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene services, to be able to accommodate the increasing needs of refugees and affected host communities, as well as to promote social cohesion and peaceful coexistence.

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The UN agency indicated that Sudan will receive more refugees, noting that the number of refugees fleeing the Central African Republic to the remote areas of the States of South and Central Darfur, has increased from just over 5,000 refugees, to nearly 17,000 refugees, in the last three months of 2019.

By the end of 2020, Sudan is expected to host more than 1.14 million refugees in need of assistance, most of whom will come from South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Syria and Yemen.