January 13, 2013 (JUBA) – The European Commission has allocated up to €80m to cater for this year’s humanitarian needs in Sudan and South Sudan, it announced in a statement.

Kristalina Georgieva, the European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response (Reuters)

The fund, the Commission said, as part of the recently adopted plan for the allocation of over €661m in humanitarian aid funding for 2013, under what it calls the “World-Wide Decision on Humanitarian Aid”.

This aid, according to the commission, is allocated based on an annual Global Needs Assessment (GNA), where the European Commission categorises 140 developing countries in terms of their vulnerability and the recent occurrence of a crisis.

“The scope and size of the Commission’s world-wide humanitarian aid decision is a sober reminder of the extent of humanitarian needs around the world. For hundreds of millions of people crises are not rare events but recurrent, seemingly unavoidable hardships,” said Kristalina Georgieva, the European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response.

Humanitarian aid, she added, is a vital expression of the Commission’s humanity towards those who suffer, as well as the basic physical needs it fulfills.

"As in the past, the EU will provide its humanitarian assistance solely based on where people’s needs are most pressing, and independently of any political agenda,” Georgieva noted, while further pledging the Commission’s continued commitment to its fundamental principles.

Sudan and South Sudan currently face a number of humanitarian challenges. Last year, over 200,000 people fled the conflict in Sudan’s South Kordofan and Blue Nile states into neighboring South Sudan and Ethiopia. The conflict, according to the United Nations, has displaced over 500,000 people.

The Commission, will this year alone, reportedly fund humanitarian interventions run by more than 200 of its partner organisations in nearly 80 countries or regions.

Meanwhile, it’s other large humanitarian operations, based on an in-depth assessment of the needs of the most vulnerable populations in the world, will reportedly be in Mali (€82m), the Democratic Republic of Congo (€54m), Pakistan (€42m) and Somalia (€40m).

“All of these are large-scale, protracted crises resulting from conflict, food shortages or both,” partly reads its statement extended to Sudan Tribune.

“Geographically, the largest portion of aid will go to sub-Saharan Africa to which €344.5 million, representing 52% of the Commission’s pre-programmed humanitarian funding, is targeted,” it adds.

Part of the Commission’s budget, it says, is also dedicated to populations that receive little media attention and for whom the Commission is often the only major donor.

In 2013, the Commission has reportedly identified several populations in the nine countries of Algeria, Bangladesh, Central African Republic, Colombia, India, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Yemen, who reportedly meet these criteria.

“The only new crisis on this year’s list is the one caused by conflict and internal displacement in Pakistan. Other long-enduring forgotten crises include the armed conflict caused by the Lord’s Resistance Army in Central African Republic, the Sahrawi refugees in Algeria, and the victims of conflict in Colombia,” the statement adds.

(ST)