Sudan: UN appeals for aid as 200,000 forced to flee abroad

The United Nations has appealed for $3 billion to help those affected by the conflict in Sudan with a top UN official decrying multiple serious breaches of an agreement by Sudan’s warring parties last week to spare civilians and civilian infrastructure and to let in badly needed aid.
The United Nations humanitarian agency said it needs $2.6 billion to help those still within Sudan, saying 25 million people in the country are in need of humanitarian aid and protection. The agency’s chief, Ramesh Rajasingham, said the fighting in Sudan has been a “cruel blow to the people of Sudan,” adding that the conflict has left at least 676 dead, with the true toll likely much higher. Meanwhile, UN aid official Martin Griffiths welcomed the declaration signed on 12 May in Jeddah by the two warring sides, vowing to refrain from attacking humanitarians delivering desperately-needed aid. However, while aid deliveries have picked up, Griffiths told AFP that “there are breaches of the declaration however, which are important and egregious, and which have happened since the signing.”

This comes after the UN recently reported that some 200,000 people have now fled Sudan to neighboring countries and hundreds of thousands more have been displaced inside the country, trying to escape bloody fighting that has been ongoing for almost a month. The International Organization for Migration (IOM), which is operating under the UN system, reported that more than 700,000 people have been displaced within Sudan. Humanitarian response to deal with the plight of the people fleeing the country will be “challenging and costly,” Sarrado warned. Some 30,000 refugees had arrived in Chad in just recent days, she said, bringing the total number who have arrived from Sudan in recent weeks to 60,000, with almost 90% of them being women and children.