UN releases emergency aid reserves after ‘brutal’ cuts from donors

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GENEVA (Reuters) – The United Nations has released $110 million from an emergency fund to help neglected crises around the world, including Sudan, after donors like the United States ordered major cuts.

The U.N. forecasts that funding levels, which were dwindling long before U.S. President Donald Trump ordered foreign aid frozen in January, are projected to drop to a record low this year.

The Trump administration announced last month it was cancelling nearly 10,000 foreign aid grants and contracts worth almost $60 billion, ending about 90% of the U.S. Agency for International Development global work.

Other donors like Britain have also announced cuts as countries face growing pressure to boost defence spending.

“For countries battered by conflict, climate change and economic turmoil, brutal funding cuts don’t mean that humanitarian needs disappear,” said Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator.

The U.N. is seeking $45 billion in 2025 to help around 185 million people fleeing conflict and battling starvation in what Fletcher described as “an unprecedented level of suffering”. So far it has received just 5% of this.

The money released from the Central Emergency Response Fund will go towards underfunded and neglected crises across Africa, Asia and Latin America, the U.N. statement said. Around a third of the money will go support Sudan, where nearly two years of civil war has triggered a huge displacement of people and a hunger crisis, and neighbouring Chad which has taken in more than a million Sudanese refugees.

Other recipients include Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Niger and Somalia.

(Reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Frances Kerry)