Reps. Summer Lee, Gregory Meeks, and Barbara Lee call for increased humanitarian aid, safe zones, and Temporary Protected Status for Sudanese migrants.
With only a few weeks left of President Joe Biden's administration, the progressive Squad member Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) is spearheading a call urging Biden to increase U.S. humanitarian aid to the war-torn country of Sudan , among other requests. In a letter sent Monday, Lee—as well as Reps. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.
)—warned that 'without decisive global engagement, violent conflict in Sudan threatens to destabilize the entire region, with devastating implications for countless lives and communities.' Sudan has been racked by violence since fighting erupted between the between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF)—the nation's official military—and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April 2023. The civil war has also led to widespread hunger in the country. According to the letter, roughly half of Sudan's population is in acute need of food, and over the summer, famine was declared in a refugee camp in Sudan's Darfur region. The letter notes that nearly 12 million people have been displaced due to the conflict. The letter writers are asking Biden to act swiftly, including through 'multilateral fora' to protect civilians by establishing safe zones and setting up humanitarian corridors. They are requesting an increase in U.S. humanitarian aid, specifically that a portion of that funding go toward supporting Sudanese organizations and entities that are aiding civilians on the ground. The trio is also urging the U.S. to renew Temporary Protected Status for Sudan, a program that gives migrants whose home countries are deemed unsafe the ability to live and work in the U.S. for a period of time, and are asking for an update to the December 2023 'atrocity determination' to include new crimes committed by both the RSF and SAF. The atrocity determination that the three lawmakers reference was issued by Secretary of State Antony Blinken in December 2023, declaring 'that members of the SAF and the RSF have committed war crimes in Sudan
Sudan Humanitarian Aid War Crimes Biden Administration Temporary Protected Status
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