UNITED NATIONS APPEALS FOR $120 MILLION FOR EMERGENCY HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE TO SUDAN IN 1997
Press Release
IHA/619
UNITED NATIONS APPEALS FOR $120 MILLION FOR EMERGENCY HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE TO SUDAN IN 1997
19970218 NEW YORK, 18 February (DHA) -- As hostilities increase in the country, the United Nations today appealed for $120.8 million to meet the emergency humanitarian needs of the estimated 4.2 million war-affected and displaced persons in the Sudan, many of whom are struggling to cope with chronic malnutrition and the alarming increase of infectious diseases. Persistent insecurity combined with natural disasters, including crop failures and floods in the Sudan, have worsened the plight of almost all vulnerable groups who are already living below subsistence levels.To meet the emergency needs of vulnerable groups including 630,000 children under the age of five, the United Nations is appealing for $120.8 million to fund 33 projects during 1997. The largest request is from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) which requires more than $46 million to help improve the health, nutrition and overall household food security of the war's main victims -- women, children and the elderly. The World Food Programme (WFP) is requesting $43.1 million for food aid, and its transport and handling costs, in order to feed 2.6 million people this year, an increase of 500,000 over last year. This total comprises 2.2 million people in southern Sudan, 374,000 in the transitional zone between northern and southern Sudan and 78,000 in the greater Khartoum area.
At present, some 4.2 million people (3.4 million in the southern states; 445,000 in the transitional zone and 395,000 in greater Khartoum) will require assistance in the form of medical and health care, basic education, emergency shelter, as well as agriculture, livestock and fishing inputs. The most severely affected regions in the Sudan are parts of Bahr Al-Ghazal, Jonglei and Upper Nile. Some of the country's highest malnutrition rates are being registered by aid workers in northern Bahr Al-Ghazal. Other vulnerable areas include the camps and settlements areas around Khartoum, where an estimated 1.8 million internally displaced Sudanese struggle to eke out a living. The Sudan is estimated to have the highest number of internally displaced persons in the world, with as many as 4 million people, of which 80 per cent are women and children.
- 2 - Press Release IHA/619 18 February 1997
Most emergency assistance to the Sudan is channelled through Operation Lifeline Sudan under which seven United Nations agencies and more than 50 non-governmental organizations operate to bring assistance to war-affected populations living in southern Sudan, the transitional zone and the internally displaced camps and settlement areas around Khartoum. The Operation works in close partnership with all the parties to the conflict including the Government of the Sudan and the southern movements.
Despite various obstacles, including denials of flight access to vulnerable areas, Operation Lifeline Sudan significantly addressed some of the worst material effects of the conflict on civilian populations by delivering 50,366 tons of food between January and November 1996 (of which 28,666 were allocated to Government-held areas and 21,700 to rebel-held areas). From Khartoum, UNICEF delivered a total of 3,300 tons of non-food assistance while from Lokichokio, Operation Lifeline Sudan delivered 3,400 tons by air of non-food relief supplies. The Operation's agencies continued to support rehabilitation programmes in the fields of health, household food security, livestock, water, sanitation, emergency education, war-affected children and capacity-building.
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