UAE to partner with UN to aid Sudan, South Sudan

The United Arab Emirates has signed an agreement with the UN World Food Programme (WFP) to contribute $25 million in emergency food assistance to those affected by the crisis in Sudan and South Sudan, the Emirates News Agency (WAM) has reported.

The assistance will be provided to those directly affected by the crisis, including refugees, internally displaced people and returnees impacted by the war, the agency said on Sunday.

Since mid-April 2023, the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been engaged in a war that has resulted in nearly 15,000 deaths and around 8.5 million displaced persons and refugees, according to the United Nations.

The agreement was signed on behalf of the UAE by Sultan al Shamsi, the assistant minister for international development affairs, and by Matthew Nims, executive director of the WFP's Washington office.

Spreading neighbouring countries

According to the agency, some 17.7 million people in Sudan and 7.1 million in South Sudan are facing acute food insecurity because of the war in Sudan.

To help alleviate this crisis, the UAE has committed a total of $25 million in aid: $20 million for Sudan and $5 million for South Sudan, the agency said.

On Wednesday, the WFP said that “as Sudan’s crisis drags on, the fallout is growing in neighbouring countries,” adding that “of the more than two million war-displaced people now living outside Sudan’s borders, more than half are in Chad and South Sudan, countries already grappling with soaring hunger of their own.”

In 2011, South Sudan separated from Sudan through a popular referendum.