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£50,000 overseas aid sent

The Island is giving £50,000 in aid to Sudan and Sierra Leone.

It's in response to emergencies in the two countries which are among the poorest in the world.

The money was granted by Overseas Aid Committee.

70,000 people have been displaced from homes in the Blue Nile State on the border of Sudan and South Sudan as the area sees fighting between the Sudanese Government and rebel groups. There has also been a loss of agricultural land and a failed harvest.

The Island is donating more than £25,000 to the charity Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust to provide emergency food aid and seeds to farmers.

A further £25,000 will go to Oxfam to be used to help control a cholera epidemic in Sierra Leone which has so far claimed the lives of 200 people. 12,000 more have contracted the disease and a state of emergency has been declared.

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