The United States and United Nations have launched a new humanitarian aid fund for Sudan, with a combined $700 million in initial contributions from the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates.
The U.S. said it will contribute $200 million from a $2 billion reserve earmarked for global humanitarian assistance. The UAE pledged $500 million. Saudi Arabia and other attendees of Tuesday’s fundraising event in Washington also committed to pledging support, but did not disclose specific amounts.
Tom Fletcher, head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), co-hosted the event with U.S. senior adviser for Arab and African affairs Massad Boulos.
“Today we are signaling that the international community will work together to bring this suffering to an end, and to ensure lifesaving aid reaches communities in such desperate, desperate need,” Fletcher said.
Fletcher said donors aim to show progress by the start of Ramadan on Feb. 17. Boulos added that the U.S. has put forward a proposal for a humanitarian truce that could be agreed upon in the coming weeks.
Sudan has been engulfed in conflict since 2023, with fighting between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group and the Sudanese military. The United Nations estimates that more than 40,000 people have been killed, though the actual toll may be significantly higher.
The war has created what the U.N. calls the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with more than 14 million displaced and famine declared in multiple regions.
Recent clashes have concentrated in the Kordofan region, where the military reported gains. On Tuesday, officials said they reopened a key road between the towns of Kadugli and Dilling, breaking an RSF siege on Kadugli that began at the war’s onset. Famine was declared in Kadugli last November by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.
The Sudan Doctors Network said a drone strike by the RSF hit a medical center in Kadugli on Tuesday, killing 15 people, including seven children.
