By William Madouk
The United States of America through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), has donated an extra $100M to help in the fight against hunger.
This brings the total U.S. government humanitarian assistance to South Sudan to nearly $609 million in Fiscal Year 2024.
In a statement issued yesterday,
The announcement came after the visit by USAID’s Assistant to the Administrator for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA), Sonali Korde to South Sudan.
During her stay from September 9-11, Korde visited key humanitarian project sites.
She also met with senior officials, diplomatic missions, the leadership of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), and implementing partners.
Korde announced an additional $100 million in U.S. government humanitarian food assistance for the South Sudanese people.
“This additional life-saving humanitarian assistance – made possible through a partnership between USAID and the U.S. Department of Agriculture,” the statement read in part.
“ – will provide nearly 42,000 metric tons of assistance to approximately one million people experiencing acute food insecurity,” it added.
According to the US, ending the humanitarian crisis in South Sudan requires urgent action, adding South Sudan government must clearly allocate public revenue for humanitarian response.
“This includes the transitional government doing its part and transparently allocating the use of public revenue for humanitarian response and to address other basic public needs,” it noted.
South Sudan is being termed as one of the world’s most dangerous countries for humanitarian aid workers, according to aid agencies.
The U.S. government also called on the transitional government to address the unacceptably high safety and security risks faced by UN agencies, NGO partners, and local communities.
“Peace is a critical element in preventing increased humanitarian crisis. The Embassy welcomes the Tumaini Initiative talks in Nairobi and urges all signatories to the 2018 peace agreement as well as non-signatories to take advantage of this opportunity to advance peace,” the statement added.
“It is also essential that interparty direct talks take place at the leadership level in Juba as well.”