UN says appeals for Sudan aid are $1.5 billion short

Campaign to help the needy is only 14% funded, says official

Bahri in Sudan, also known as Khartoum North, on May 1. Reuters.

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The UN's appeal for aid in Sudan is $1.5 billion short and 86 per cent short of reaching its target, an official said on Tuesday.

“The $1.75 billion joint appeal for Sudan in 2024 is only 14 per cent funded. In other words … facing a funding gap of $1.5 billion,” Jens Laerke, the UN humanitarian agency's spokesman, said in Geneva.

Meanwhile, the UN estimated that 100,000 Sudanese people have left the country and 334,000 are internally displaced.

Two weeks after fighting broke out on April 15 between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the army, the International Committee of the Red Cross was the first to send aid to Sudan.

The ICRC said that a second flight was to arrive Sudan, but did not say when.

The state of medical facilities in the country is worsening every day. The doctors' union continued to report increasing numbers of hospitals out of service and more attacks on ambulances.

“The health system has completely collapsed in (the city of) Geneina,” the union said, adding that looting of clinics and camps for the displaced had forced several agencies to carry out “emergency evacuations” for their teams.

Hospitals and blood banks are also being raided and robbed, the union said, adding that Geneina had been subjected to “unprecedented barbaric attacks” since April 20.

“The death toll is at 94 but the tally is still being counted,” it said, adding that there were attacks on displacement camps and medical facilities.

“We call on everybody with a conscience, and humanitarian organisations, to rescue civilians and victims of this absurd war,” the union said.

It called for the evacuation of the wounded and protection of the sick, the women, the elderly and children in Geneina.

Unconfirmed reports of doctors being kidnapped were also circulating.

Doctors Without Borders said it had halted “almost all activities in West Darfur” because of the fighting.

The World Health Organisation in Dubai's International Humanitarian City, the region's largest humanitarian centre, said it will be sending 30 tonnes of aid to Sudan as quickly as possible.

Growing peace effort

Other countries are offering to assist in mediation efforts to end the violence. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi said Cairo would provide support for dialogue in Sudan between the rival military factions, but was also “being careful about not interfering in their domestic matters”.

“The entire region could be affected,” he warned in an interview with a Japanese newspaper on Tuesday as an envoy from Sudan's army chief, who leads one of the warring sides, met Egyptian officials in Cairo.

UN officials said aid chief Martin Griffiths aimed to visit Sudan on Tuesday, but the timing was still to be confirmed.

Also on Tuesday, former Sudanese prime minister Abdalla Hamdok, who led a transitional government with civilian parties and the military before an October 2021 takeover led by the generals, urged a far-reaching international effort to stop the conflict.

“Together we can stop the war,” he said on Twitter, outlining a five-point plan to kick-start peace talks.

He thanked President William Ruto of Kenya, plus representatives from the African Union, the UN, Canada and the UK for advising on peace efforts.

He called for an immediate ceasefire, and an agreement between the army and the RSF “to create permanent, reliable and secure humanitarian corridors and critical infrastructure protection”.

This should lead to internationally backed talks to restore civilian representation in government, he said.