*‘Left to fend for themselves’* Just when humanitarian agencies in famine-hit Sudan, and presumably its distressed people, believed the situation could get no more disastrous, along came the U.S. aid freeze.
Kholood Khair, founder of the Confluence Advisory think tank, said *aid flows into her country had been “pitifully low”* since its civil war began in April 2023, with “untold horrors” of rape, starvation, and genocide. “Now, after the cruel deployment of the immediate freeze by the U.S. government – the largest humanitarian donor in Sudan – *Sudanese have been largely left to fend for themselves*,” Khair warned at a debate entitled “A Living Nightmare.” Ted Chaiban, a deputy executive director at UNICEF <https://t.devex.com/Njg1LUtCTC03NjUAAAGYszLyFje9uDDqs6ALWc0SeJgKvDImZ8hOp3FHcBn0KwYsBJh8FBHY5dBkn_FLjqaaoKzdrRM=>, agreed the *dismantling of USAID is hitting operations in Sudan*, saying: “We need an acceleration of the humanitarian waivers, the return of U.S. funding to be able to support the response.” And Filippo Grandi, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, said some waivers were being secured, but agreed the confusion “makes the situation even more complex from the humanitarian point of view.” *Background reading:* ‘The world, as a whole, has dropped the ball’ on Sudan <https://t.devex.com/dc/kyXVoDpAY__Vu56MNr4POg9zMhBSk812REZc5HyUTeyMphGcg9w6C3dWKPhHEIV38coadKss6tzgv2HnGLZl4bv8ibXDjtmEwHcRvSstqvjsyANcbX3A4_URrRvoFkIIJRWfbGUsPzqxVA1ZSl0wcp66PqVNoOE3e1QwfydDV8mnvtctMye1IcGVXw4zWJjUrDJfZ8u0BlhcKEThm1jB86NE4gRnzpuUy7Rr0NL1N-KFesJY4P6e9i5LN6LjgM3u/Njg1LUtCTC03NjUAAAGYszLyFvkDUArGnlRk4K8HZAnB9ZEWmVmW9fOHwKz8x_zC5wua6o1cB7QGa5t-qRVFXd93Jt0=> [image: Pro] <https://t.devex.com/Njg1LUtCTC03NjUAAAGYszLyFvfO7WMaChwcZ4xe228JXiY3jtHQsn56DJSrdQXArbqBRrCL_ezHZzdFjBSzEmHSF2g=>
