The United States Government has announced a $ 133 million donation in humanitarian assistance to the people of South Sudan.
The package was unveiled yesterday by the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, Gayle Smith, at what was described as “a high level side event on South Sudan” held on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
According to a press statement issued this morning by the United States Mission in Kampala, the package is meant for the approximately 2.7 million people who were forced to become either refugees or internally following the outbreak of the recent civil war in Southern Sudan.
Forces loyal to President Salvar Kiir and his former Deputy, Dr Riek Machar, have been fighting in the country since December 2013 when a political power struggle broke out between the two.
The statement painted a dire picture of the situation in the Sudan, saying that 40 percent of the population of the country is in need of “life-saving assistance, with some people on the brink of starvation”.
The funding, according to the statement, will boost emergency health services, increase access to clean water and sanitation and provide support to survivors of gender-based violence and help increase access to emergency education for refugee children and build and expand new refugee camps in the region.
The funding is also expected to help feed the hungry, provide nutrition supplements for children suffering from malnutrition, and reunite families separated by the fighting.
The latest funding will bring to US$1.9billion the total that the United States government has committed to South Sudan since the conflict broke out.
Story By Isaac Mufumba
