Germans pledge more aid for South Sudan and Sudan
In light of current humanitarian situation in Sudan and South Sudan, Germany will increase its humanitarian aid for both countries by €5 million.
In a press statement, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said the increase in the funding came after thousands of people had been forced to flee ongoing armed conflict in Sudan’s South Kordofan and Blue Nile states into South Sudan.
I welcome the Sudanese Government’s willingness to improve humanitarian access to the disputed states.” The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) recently warned that it was having difficulty coping with the massive influx of refugees into South Sudan and Ethiopia, estimated at over 200,000.
At least more than half of those displaced, the agency says, still lack the basic necessities for their survival, raising fears of more deaths as refugee numbers continue rising.
The Sudanese government welcomed a proposed plan by the African Union, the UN and the Arab League to allow humanitarian access into the affected region.
I welcome the Sudanese Government’s willingness to improve humanitarian access to the disputed states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile; the plight of the people there, cut off for months from international aid, is alarming,” Westerwelle’s statement said.
It is clear, however, that the outcomes achieved so far are only the beginning of what is needed. I call on the Government of the Sudan to make what it has pledged a reality now and swiftly enable access for independent aid organisations.”
Half of South Sudan’s 9.7 million people are facing food shortages.” The statement also said that the Federal Foreign Office has now provided a total of €12 million for humanitarian aid measures in the Sudan and South Sudan in 2012. The funds go to national and international relief agencies which are governed by the principles of independent, unpartisan assistance. The Foreign Office also supports the coordinating role assumed by the United Nations.”
A year after it attained independence, the new Republic of South Sudan is facing its worst humanitarian crisis since the end of the war in 2005, under the weight of severe economic meltdown and ongoing conflict, the international aid agency Oxfam has said in a report.
Inflation shot from 21.3 percent in February to 80 percent in May, pushing essential food and supplies way beyond the reach of ordinary people. Half of South Sudan’s 9.7 million people are facing food shortages – more than double the number last year,” it adds.
