US, UAE and UN launch humanitarian fund with $700 million for war-ravaged Sudan

By AP 4 February 2026, 1:06 pm

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Sudanese families displaced from El-Fasher line up to receive food aid at the newly established El-Afadh camp in Al Dabbah, in Sudan's Northern State, November 16, 2025. (Marwan Ali/AP)

The United States and the United Nations are seeking to rally international support for humanitarian aid to war-ravaged Sudan, kicking off a new Sudan Humanitarian Fund with $700 million in contributions from the United Arab Emirates and the US.

The Trump administration said yesterday that it would contribute $200 million to the initiative from a basket of $2 billion it set aside late last year to fund humanitarian projects around the world. The UAE said it would contribute $500 million. Saudi Arabia and several other participants promised they would make pledges but did not specify amounts.

“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,” says UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher, who heads the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA.

Fletcher said they have set the beginning of Ramadan, on February 17, as a date “to make visible progress on this work.”

US senior adviser for Arab and African affairs Massad Boulos says the US has put forward a “comprehensive proposal” for a humanitarian truce that could be agreed on in the next few weeks.

Sudan has been in the throes of war since 2023, with the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary force and the Sudanese military clashing for power over the country. The UN estimates that over 40,000 people have been killed in the war, but considers that the true number could be many times higher.

The conflict created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with over 14 million people forced to flee their homes and with famine declared in several regions of Sudan.