Fighting in Sudan Leads to $3 Billion UN Aid Appeal

In an appeal made on Wednesday, the UN requested $3 billion to aid individuals impacted by the fighting that started last month in Sudan.

The United Nations’ humanitarian organization estimated that 25 million people in Sudan require humanitarian assistance and protection, and that it will take $2.6 billion to assist them.

The violence in Sudan, according to Ramesh Rajasingham, director of the Coordination Division and head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Geneva, has been a “cruel blow to the people of Sudan.”

According to Rajasingham, the violence has claimed at least 676 lives, with the actual number presumably being far higher.

The U.N. agency for refugees contributed an additional $400 million to the appeal in order to assist individuals who have fled the war in Sudan and into nearby nations.

At a briefing on Wednesday, Mervat Shelbaya, the head of the interagency assistance division for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Geneva, stated that the conflict had driven more than 950,000 people out of their homes and 220,000 into neighboring nations.

“We and the people of Sudan need the generous support of the international community if we are to scale up our response and reach all those in need,” Shelbaya added.

General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan’s Sudanese army is engaged in combat with General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

Following the 2019 overthrow of longtime leader Omar al-Bashir, the two generals, who were once allies, planned an October 2021 military coup that stalled a transition to civilian administration.

Conflicts about who should oversee the Rapid Support Forces’ integration into the army and how they should be integrated have been escalating between the generals. The military was reorganized as part of an effort to put an end to the political turmoil brought on by the military coup in 2021 and return the nation to civilian control.

This report included some data from Agence France-Presse and Reuters.