£50,000 raised by churchgoers to provide urgent help for Sudan

While Covid-19 is causing significant problems here in the UK, in Sudan and South Sudan a lethal combination of starvation in the North and a lack of basic sanitation in the South has exacerbated the threat.

Bishop Nicholas Holtam said: "Thank you to everyone for such a heartening response. It is generous, outward looking and caring. I have spoken to both the Archbishops of Khartoum and Juba in the last week and they are deeply thankful for the support of this appeal.”

The funds, which were raised through a combination of a JustGiving site, individual donations and fundraising by parishes, will be divided equally between the Churches in Sudan and South Sudan.

They will be used to provide food for Sudan, where a quarter of the Sudanese population is severely food-insecure. This proportion, the highest ever recorded, is being blamed on the ongoing economic and political crises which have been exacerbated by the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.

They will also provide life-saving sanitisers and basic hand washing facilities for South Sudan, where poor sanitation in the refugee camps means coronavirus is able to spread freely among a weakened population.

International agencies say that more than 9.6 million people in the Sudans are in need of urgent assistance.