The United States and the United Nations have launched a new Sudan Humanitarian Fund with $700 million in contributions to support civilians affected by Sudan’s ongoing conflict, officials said Tuesday.
The U.S. pledged $200 million from a $2 billion fund set aside last year for global humanitarian projects, while the United Arab Emirates announced a $500 million contribution. Saudi Arabia and several other countries also promised support, though the amounts were not specified.
“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,” said U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher, who leads the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Fletcher co-hosted the fundraising event in Washington with U.S. senior adviser for Arab and African affairs Massad Boulos.
Fletcher said visible progress on the initiative is expected by the start of Ramadan on February 17. Boulos added that the U.S. has proposed a “comprehensive plan” for a humanitarian truce, which could be finalized in the coming weeks.
Sudan has been engulfed in war since 2023, with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese military fighting for control. The U.N. estimates that over 40,000 people have been killed, though the real toll is believed to be much higher. The conflict has created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, displacing more than 14 million people and causing famine in several regions.
Recent fighting has centered in the Kordofan regions after the RSF captured el-Fasher, one of the army’s last Darfur strongholds. The military has since regained territory in Kordofan, including breaking the siege of Kadugli and nearby Dilling, and reopened a key road linking the two towns. Kadugli had been under siege since the start of the war, with famine declared there in November by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.
On Tuesday, the RSF carried out a drone attack on a medical center in Kadugli, killing 15 people, including seven children, according to the Sudan Doctors Network, which monitors casualties from the war.