UN agency unveils $1.6bn appeal to support refugees in seven countries
UN agency unveils $1.6bn appeal to support refugees in seven countries as the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, and 123 partner organisations warned that the displacement shock from Sudan’s war is now pushing host communities and humanitarian systems to breaking point. The appeal, launched as the Sudan conflict approaches its fourth year, is built around the 2026 Sudan Regional Refugee Response Plan (RRRP) and targets 5.9 million people who need life-saving aid and basic protection across seven countries neighbouring Sudan. 
UN agency unveils $1.6bn appeal to support refugees in seven countries, and the list of host states under the plan reflects the geography of flight: Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, South Sudan and Uganda. The plan prioritises emergency support for communities already hosting large numbers of refugees, while preparing for further inflows expected this year. 
At the heart of the message from UNHCR’s Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa, Mamadou Dian Balde, was a blunt assessment: Sudan is now the world’s largest displacement crisis, unfolding amid what he described as the worst global funding squeeze in decades. The repeated annual appeals, he said, underscore both the scale of need and the shrinking pool of resources available to meet it. 
UN agency unveils $1.6bn appeal to support refugees in seven countries because the flight has not slowed. The plan anticipates about 470,000 new refugees crossing into these neighbouring states this year, in addition to thousands stranded in border areas who have received only the most basic support. 
The war behind the numbers
UN agency unveils $1.6bn appeal to support refugees in seven countries as the Sudan war, which erupted in mid-April 2023, continues to drive people out of homes and into precarious, often under-served border regions. The conflict pits Sudan’s national army against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in a power struggle that has battered civilian life and undermined public services. 
Balde said essential services have collapsed in several parts of Sudan while humanitarian access remains restricted in many areas. The effect is a steady movement of people across borders, often arriving in communities that were already struggling even before the crisis began. 
UN agency unveils $1.6bn appeal to support refugees in seven countries, and the human reality is that many “receiving” areas have limited jobs, stretched health facilities, weak housing stock, and thin education infrastructure. That is why the appeal is not framed as “refugees only,” but as support for both refugees and host communities.
Where the pressure is most visible
UN agency unveils $1.6bn appeal to support refugees in seven countries, and UNHCR’s briefing pointed to Egypt and eastern Chad as major centres of displacement within the region. UNHCR said 4.3 million Sudanese refugees remain displaced within the region, with most located in those two areas. 
In Egypt, UNHCR said the country now hosts about 1.4 million Sudanese who have fled the war, and registered refugee figures have nearly quadrupled since 2023. But severe funding cuts have forced UNHCR to close two of its three registration centres, affecting access to critical protection services. 
UN agency unveils $1.6bn appeal to support refugees in seven countries, and the funding collapse shows up in a single brutal comparison: available funding per refugee per month dropped from $11 to $4, according to the UNHCR briefing. 
In eastern Chad, the plan highlights a shelter emergency: more than 71,000 refugee families have not received housing assistance, and nearly 234,000 people are awaiting relocation, living in fragile conditions at the border. 
UN agency unveils $1.6bn appeal to support refugees in seven countries, and in Uganda the warning is medical as much as humanitarian. UNHCR said clinic closures and the suspension of critical nutrition programmes in Kiryandongo settlement have left thousands of Sudanese refugees at heightened risk of disease. 
https://ogelenews.ng/un-agency-unveils-1-6bn-appeal-to-support-refugees
What the $1.6bn is meant to fund
UN agency unveils $1.6bn appeal to support refugees in seven countries, and the ask is not for “general support.” The plan is structured around the basics people lose first in displacement:
• food security and emergency supplies
• shelter and housing support
• health services, including nutrition support
• protection services, including registration and documentation
• support to address sexual and gender-based violence
The UN Geneva briefing notes that food security is the largest funding need, followed by registration access, SGBV response, health services and housing. 
UN agency unveils $1.6bn appeal to support refugees in seven countries, and UN officials have been careful to say the strategy is not only about emergency relief. It also includes “more dignified” support and efforts that help host governments integrate refugees into national systems, where possible, so refugees can access services without creating parallel structures that collapse when donor funding drops. 
The warning: needs rising, resources shrinking
UN agency unveils $1.6bn appeal to support refugees in seven countries, but the most urgent line in UNHCR’s messaging is the gap between need and money. Balde warned that the widening gap threatens both emergency response and medium-term solutions, and UNHCR renewed its call for stronger international support for countries absorbing the shock. 
The subtext is familiar: host countries may show solidarity, but solidarity does not build clinics, feed families, register arrivals, or replace lost livelihoods. The longer the conflict persists, the more displacement becomes “normal,” and the more normal underfunding becomes too.
UN agency unveils $1.6bn appeal to support refugees in seven countries, and that is why this appeal matters. It is a test of whether the world can sustain attention long enough to keep millions alive, protected, and accounted for while diplomacy fails and the war grinds on.
https://punchng.com/un-agency-unveils-1-6bn-appeal-to-support-refugees-in-seven-countries
