A generous contribution of US$ 6 million by the King Salman Humanitarian and Relief Centre (KS Relief), has enabled UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency to conclude a project providing critical emergency relief material to thousands of people forced to flee by the Sudan conflict.
With this support, UNHCR provided shelter kits, blankets, mattresses, kitchen utensils, and other non-food relief items to improve the living conditions of new arrivals in Chad and South Sudan, two of the largest hosts of people fleeing Sudan. The project was also undertaken in locations inside Sudan hosting internally displaced people as well as refugees hosted by Sudan who had been forced on the move again within the country due to the fighting.
"This support has been absolutely critical in helping our Sudanese sisters and brothers to restart their lives in areas where they have found safety, since the war began, but also at a time when global funding towards this crisis has been very challenging. We are very grateful to the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre for partnering with UNHCR to deliver much needed assistance to thousands of people affected by this crisis and look forward to doing even more together," said Mamadou Dian Balde, UNHCR's Regional Refugee Coordinator for the Sudan situation.
In Chad, UNHCR and partners provided improved emergency shelters to 1,951 refugee families, ensuring a safe and culturally appropriate housing, boosting privacy and adequate space to store goods and food, particularly urgent given that nearly 90 per cent of the new arrivals are women and children.
More than 10,000 people were also similarly assisted in transit centres in South Sudan, where hundreds of thousands have arrived as well as refugee settlements where they have been relocated to. Inside Sudan, UNHCR successfully distributed 14,960 kits of relief items benefitting nearly 15,000 people in the Gedaref, Red Sea and North Darfur states, to improve their dignity and well-being.
After two years of brutal war in Sudan, nearly 13 million people have fled their homes with almost 4 million crossing into the neighbouring countries of Egypt, South Sudan, Chad, Libya, Ethiopia, the Central African Republic, and Uganda.
Despite this being one of the world's largest displacement crisis, funding to help meet people's needs has lagged. To date, the regional refugee response that seeks to support the displaced as well as communities hosting them is only 11 percent funded.
UNHCR is grateful to KS Relief for the strong support in response to the Sudan situation. We continue to urge more international solidarity so that people's lives can be saved.
