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play roulette Syngenta to provide free heribicide to 15,000 farmers in Sindh Syngenta logo can be seen out side their office. — Syngenta website/File KARACHI: Syngenta Pakistan, a leading agriculture innovation and technology company that provides crop protection, seeds and digital services to millions of Pakistani farmers, has joined hands with the Sindh government for a groundbreaking initiative to support wheat farmers in the province with free-of-cost distribution of their herbicide product to 15,000 growers. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1700472799616-0'); }); This programme promises to enhance wheat cultivation and maximise yields across 45,000 acres of farmland, said a press release on Thursday. Country General Manager of Syngenta Pakistan Zeeshan Hasib Baig remarked, “Syngenta Pakistan is strongly committed to support our growers and to promote food security of Pakistan. In this context, we have partnered with the Sindh government to empower wheat growers during the upcoming season for higher productivity and profitability. This wheat product is a state-of-the-art herbicide, designed to deliver exceptional weed control, enabling farmers to achieve optimal yields with a single application. By equipping farmers with cutting-edge solutions, we aim to boost wheat production, reduce weed-related losses, and contribute to a food secure Pakistan.” Director General of Sindh Government’s Department of Agriculture Extension Munir Ahmed Jumani said: “Wheat farming has great potential in Sindh, and it is a pleasure to see Syngenta coming up with this gracious offer to distribute free of cost herbicide among the farmers. Our agriculture extension department will extend every possible support to enable the farmers to maximise productivity, while reducing the cost of wheat cultivation to ensure food security.”Harris Rosen, who built Florida’s largest independent hotel chain and was one of Orlando’s preeminent philanthropists, died Monday, his business partner announced. He was 85. Rosen, the Orlando Sentinel’s Central Floridian of the Year in 2011, opened his first hotel in 1974, purchasing a 256-room Quality Inn on International Drive, and has since grown his empire to seven properties and more than 6,300 rooms. “Harris was an angel to so many here on earth, and now he takes his place among the angels in heaven,” said Frank Santos, vice president of Rosen Hotels & Resorts. “A beloved father, grandfather, and a pillar of our community, his boundless generosity and love touched countless lives through his unwavering commitment to helping underserved communities, promoting education, advancing the fight against cancer, and supporting health and wellness initiatives.” Rosen’s philanthropy reaches far and wide in Orlando – with multimillion-dollar investments to send children from underserved neighborhoods to preschool and college, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings noted in a statement. “His commitment to our community went beyond his work as a hotelier,” he said. “Through the Rosen Foundation, Harris invested millions into local schools, healthcare, and vital programs for underprivileged families, uplifting countless people in the process. Most notably, his education philanthropy in the Tangelo Park and Parramore Communities is unparalleled.” In 1993, Rosen adopted Tangelo Park, a working class neighborhood in unincorporated Orange County near the I-Drive corridor, paying for preschool for all of the neighborhood’s children and providing scholarships covering the full cost of college or vocational school for all of its graduating high school seniors. According to his company biography, more than 250 Tangelo Park students have received full scholarships to college through the program. In 2016, he expanded his efforts to Parramore in Downtown Orlando, where more than 40 students have received scholarships. Though his college scholarship effort may have been more widely publicized, he spent twice as much funding preschool – so much so that in 2019, if Rosen had been his own state, he’d rank 10th in Pre-K funding per student, Orlando Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell wrote in a column that year . “One thing I quickly learned is that there is as much intellectual talent in the underserved communities as there is in gated communities,” Rosen said then. “And this investment pays off.” Orange County Commissioner Mike Scott, who grew up in Tangelo Park and whose commission district includes the neighborhood, described the hotelier as “someone to stand with you and beside you and put a hand on your shoulder and say, ‘Hey, I got you. I’ll help you. It’ll be OK.” “You know, many folks would have probably not been able to go to college or even have a job in some instances, if it wasn’t for him. People say it was philanthropy, but I feel like it was just his love, his concern and care for the community,” he said. Rosen is also the namesake of the University of Central Florida’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management. In 2002, he donated 20 acres near his Rosen Shingle Creek hotel, along with $10 million to start the campus. But there was much more that distinguished him. Employees of his hotels — all of which are located in greater Orlando — receive health care at an on-site clinic, which he’s said has saved his companies about $20 million annually. Employees pay $800 annual premiums with no deductibles. For years, Floridians fleeing hurricanes from coastal areas have found low-cost “disaster rates” and pet-friendly rooms as low as $69 per night at Rosen properties. When Hurricane Milton was bearing down on the Gulf Coast, about 1,000 families took shelter in the hotels, a spokeswoman said at the time. Rosen also wielded and flexed great political might, as a fierce proponent of spending Tourist Development Taxes primarily to bolster tourism interests. He battled then-Orlando Mayor Glenda Hood and Orange County Chairman Linda Chapin over a plan to use TDT funds to build a baseball stadium, lobbied against a $325 million light-rail project and opposed an effort to use the tax to help fund construction of what is now the Kia Center. Critics charged those political positions were taken with an eye on his company’s bottom line. Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said Rosen’s impact will live on. “Harris Rosen played a big role in helping our region become the nation’s top destination for visitors. But his impact extends far beyond his hotel properties,” Dyer said in a statement. “Harris was truly committed to our community and uplifting residents and neighborhoods. His generosity was incredibly impactful and shaped a stronger Central Florida for all.” rygillespie@orlandosentinel.comTiger Woods won't be playing in the Bahamas next week at the Hero World Challenge as he recovers from a sixth back surgery he had in September. In announcing Monday on social media he won't be playing, Woods said the 20-man field for his holiday tournament will be filled out by Justin Thomas, Nick Dunlap and Jason Day. Scottie Scheffler is the defending champion. Woods was unlikely to play in the Bahamas since disclosing Sept. 13 he had yet another surgery on his lower back — his sixth in 10 years — that he hoped would relieve some of the spasms he had experienced this year. He described it as a microdecompression surgery of the lumbar spine for nerve impingement, and the recovery time typically is eight to 12 weeks. Woods said while he was disappointed not to play, he looked forward to his role as the tournament host. Woods finished 18th in the 20-man field a year ago. Thomas is a two-time PGA champion whose wife gave birth to their first child a week ago, a daughter they named Molly Grace. He has played only once since the Tour Championship. The newcomer to the unofficial event — its gets world ranking points but not official money — is Dunlap, who won a PGA Tour event as an amateur, left Alabama to turn pro and picked up a second win. Dunlap joins Woods as the only players to win the U.S. Junior Amateur and the U.S. Amateur. Woods, meanwhile, is far more likely to play the PNC Challenge on Dec. 14-15 in Orlando, Florida, a 36-hole event with his son, Charlie. Woods is allowed to ride a cart that week because it is sanctioned by the PGA Tour Champions. A year ago at the Hero World Challenge, Woods spoke about his hopes of playing a big tournament every month. But he withdrew after one round at Riviera and did not play again for nearly two months. He finishes the year completing only 11 rounds. He set a Masters record by making his 24th consecutive cut, and then Woods missed the cut in the other three majors.

President-elect Donald Trump has filled the key posts for his second term in office, prioritizing loyalty to him after he felt bruised and hampered by internal squabbling during his first term. Some of his choices could face difficult confirmation fights in the Senate, even with Republicans in control, and one candidate has already withdrawn from consideration. Former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz was Trump's initial pick for attorney general, but he ultimately withdrew following scrutiny over a federal sex trafficking investigation he was embroiled in. Here's a look at Trump's choices: Trump would turn a former critic into an ally as the nation's top diplomat. Rubio , 53, is a noted hawk on China, Cuba and Iran, and was a finalist to be Trump's running mate before the slot went to JD Vance. Rubio is vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. His selection punctuates the hard pivot Rubio has made with Trump, whom the senator once called a “con man" during his own unsuccessful campaign for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. Their relationship improved dramatically while Trump was in the White House. Hegseth , 44, was a co-host of Fox News Channel’s “Fox and Friends Weekend” and had been a contributor with the network since 2014. He developed a friendship with Trump, who made regular appearances on the show. Hegseth served in the Army National Guard from 2002 to 2021, deploying to Iraq in 2005 and Afghanistan in 2011 and earning two Bronze Stars. He lacks senior military and national security experience and would oversee global crises ranging from Europe to the Middle East. A woman told police that she was sexually assaulted in 2017 by Hegseth after he took her phone, blocked the door to a California hotel room and refused to let her leave, according to a detailed investigative report recently made public. Hegseth told police at the time that the encounter had been consensual and has denied any wrongdoing. Bessent , 62, is a former money manager for George Soros , a big Democratic donor, and an advocate for deficit reduction . He founded the hedge fund Key Square Capital Management after having worked on and off for Soros Fund Management since 1991. If confirmed by the Senate, Bessent would be the nation’s first openly gay treasury secretary. He told Bloomberg in August that he decided to join Trump’s campaign in part to attack the mounting U.S. national debt. That would include slashing government programs and other spending. Gabbard, 43, is a former Democratic House member from Hawaii who has been accused of echoing Russian propaganda. She unsuccessfully sought the party’s 2020 presidential nomination and left the party in 2022. Gabbard endorsed Trump in August and campaigned often with him. Gabbard has served in the Army National Guard for more than two decades and deployed to Iraq and Kuwait. If confirmed she would come to the role as an outsider compared to her predecessor. The current director, Avril Haines, spent several years in top national security and intelligence positions. Bondi , 59, was Florida's first female attorney general, serving between 2011 and 2019. She was on Trump’s legal team during his first impeachment trial in 2020. Considered a loyalist , Bondi also has served with the America First Policy Institute, a Trump-allied group that has helped lay the groundwork for his future administration. Bondi was among a group of Republicans who showed up to support Trump at his hush-money criminal trial in New York that ended in May with a conviction on 34 felony counts. A fierce defender of Trump, she also frequently appeared on Fox News and has been critical of the criminal cases against him. The Republican U.S. House member narrowly lost her reelection bid on Nov. 5 but had received strong backing from union members in her district. As a potential labor secretary, Chavez-DeRemer would oversee the department's workforce and budget and put forth priorities that affect workers’ wages, health and safety, ability to unionize, and employer’s rights to fire employers, among other responsibilities. Chavez-DeRemer is one of a few House Republicans to endorse the “Protecting the Right to Organize” or PRO Act that would allow more workers to conduct organizing campaigns and penalize companies that violate workers’ rights. The act would also weaken “right-to-work” laws in more than half the states. Lutnick heads the brokerage and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald and is a cryptocurrency enthusiast. He is co-chair of Trump's transition operation, charged along with Linda McMahon, a former wrestling executive who previously led Trump’s Small Business Administration, with helping the president-elect fill key jobs in his second administration. As secretary, Lutnick would play a key role in carrying out Trump's plans to raise and enforce tariffs. He would oversee a sprawling Cabinet department whose oversight ranges from funding new computer chip factories and imposing trade restrictions to releasing economic data and monitoring the weather. Noem is a well-known conservative who used her two terms as South Dakota's governor to vault to a prominent position in Republican politics. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Noem did not order restrictions like other states, instead declaring South Dakota “open for business.” More recently, Noem faced sharp criticism for writing in her memoir about shooting and killing her dog. She is set to lead a department crucial to the president-elect’s hardline immigration agenda as well as other missions. Homeland Security oversees natural disaster response, the U.S. Secret Service and Transportation Security Administration agents who work at airports. Ratcliffe , a former U.S. House member from Texas, was director of national intelligence during the final year and a half of Trump’s first term. He led U.S. government’s spy agencies during the coronavirus pandemic. If confirmed, Ratcliffe will have held the highest intelligence positions in the U.S. Kennedy , 70, ran for president as a Democrat, then as an independent before he dropped out and then endorsed Trump . He's the son of Democratic icon Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1968 during his own presidential campaign. Kennedy's nomination alarmed people who are concerned about his record of spreading unfounded fears about vaccines . For example, he has long advanced the debunked idea that vaccines cause autism. Rollins , 52, is president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute, a group helping to lay the groundwork for Trump's second administration. She is a Texas attorney who was Trump's domestic policy adviser and director of his office of American innovation during his first term. Rollins previously was an aide to former Texas Gov. Rick Perry , who also served in Trump's first term. Rollins also ran the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Duffy is a former House member from Wisconsin who was one of Trump's most visible defenders on cable news. Duffy served in the House for nearly nine years , sitting on the Financial Services Committee and chairing the subcommittee on insurance and housing. He left Congress in 2019 for a TV career and has been the host of “The Bottom Line” on Fox Business. Before entering politics, Duffy was a reality TV star on MTV, where he met his wife, “Fox and Friends Weekend” co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy. They have nine children. Collins is a former Republican congressman from Georgia who gained recognition for defending Trump during his first impeachment trial. Trump was impeached for urging Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden in 2019 during the Democratic presidential campaign, but was acquitted by the Senate. Collins also served in the armed forces himself. He is a chaplain in the United States Air Force Reserve Command. The North Dakota governor , 68, is a former Republican presidential primary contender who endorsed Trump after he dropped out of the running. Burgum then became a serious contender to be Trump’s vice presidential choice in part because of his executive experience and business savvy. He also has close ties to deep-pocketed energy industry CEOs. Trump said Burgum would chair a new National Energy Council and have a seat on the National Security Council, which would be a first for the Interior secretary. A campaign donor and CEO of Denver-based Liberty Energy, Wright is a vocal advocate of oil and gas development, including fracking — a key pillar of Trump’s quest to achieve U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market. He also has been one of the industry’s loudest voices against efforts to fight climate change. Wright said the climate movement around the world is “collapsing under its own weight.” The Energy Department is responsible for advancing energy, environmental and nuclear security of the United States. McMahon, a billionaire professional wrestling mogul , would make a return appearance in a second Trump administration. She led the Small Business Administration from 2017 to 2019 in Trump’s first term and twice ran unsuccessfully in Connecticut as a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate. She served on the Connecticut Board of Education for a year starting in 2009 and has spent years on the board of trustees for Sacred Heart University. She has expressed support for charter schools and school choice. Zeldin does not appear to have any experience in environmental issues, but is a longtime supporter of the former president. The 44-year-old former U.S. House member from New York wrote on X , “We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI" and "we will do so while protecting access to clean air and water.” Trump often attacked the Biden administration’s promotion of electric vehicles, and incorrectly referred to a tax credit for EV purchases as a government mandate. Trump also often said his administration would “drill, baby, drill,” referring to his support for expanded petroleum exploration. Turner is a former NFL player and White House aide. He ran the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council during Trump’s first term in office. Trump, in a statement, credited Turner, the highest-ranking Black person he’s yet selected for his administration, with “helping to lead an Unprecedented Effort that Transformed our Country’s most distressed communities.” Greer is a partner at King & Spalding, a Washington law firm. If confirmed by the Senate, he would be responsible for negotiating directly with foreign governments on trade deals and disputes, as well as memberships in international trade bodies such as the World Trade Organization. He previously was chief of staff to Robert Lighthizer, who was the trade representative in Trump's first term. Wiles , 67, was a senior adviser to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign and its de facto manager. She has a background in Florida politics , helping Ron DeSantis win his first race for Florida governor. Six years later, she was key to Trump’s defeat of him in the 2024 Republican primary. Wiles’ hire was Trump’s first major decision as president-elect and one that could be a defining test of his incoming administration considering her close relationship with him. Wiles is said to have earned Trump’s trust in part by guiding what was the most disciplined of Trump’s three presidential campaigns. Waltz is a three-term Republican congressman from east-central Florida. A former Army Green Beret , he served multiple tours in Afghanistan and worked in the Pentagon as a policy adviser when Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates were defense chiefs. He is considered hawkish on China, and called for a U.S. boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing due to its involvement in the origin of COVID-19 and its mistreatment of the minority Muslim Uighur population. Hassett, 62, is a major advocate of tax cuts who was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers in the first Trump term. In the new role as chairman of the National Economic Council, Trump said Hassett will play an important role in helping American families recover from inflation as well as in renewing and improving tax cuts Trump enacted in 2017, many of which are set to expire after 2025. Homan, 62, has been tasked with Trump’s top priority of carrying out the largest deportation operation in the nation’s history. He led the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Trump's first administration. Democrats have criticized Homan for defending Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy on border crossings in the first term, which led to the separation of thousands of parents and children seeking asylum at the border. Vought, 48, held the position during Trump’s first presidency. He the founded the Center for Renewing America, a think tank that describes its mission as “renew a consensus of America as a nation under God.” Vought also was closely involved with Project 2025 , a conservative blueprint for Trump’s second term that Trump tried to distance himself from during the campaign. Miller, an immigration hardliner , was a vocal spokesperson during the presidential campaign for Trump’s priority of mass deportations. The 39-year-old was a senior adviser during Trump’s first term. Miller has been a central figure in some of Trump’s policy decisions, notably his move to separate thousands of immigrant families. Trump argued throughout the campaign that the nation’s economic, national security and social priorities could be met by deporting people living illegally in the U.S. Scavino was an adviser in all three of the president-elect's campaigns and was described by the transition team as one of “Trump’s longest serving and most trusted aides." He will be deputy chief of staff and assistant to the president. Scavino previously ran Trump’s social media profile in the White House. Blair was political director for Trump’s 2024 campaign and for the Republican National Committee. He will be deputy chief of staff for legislative, political and public affairs and an assistant to the president. Blair was key to Trump’s economic messaging during his winning White House comeback campaign. Budowich is a veteran Trump campaign aide who launched and directed Make America Great Again, Inc., a super PAC that supported Trump’s 2024 campaign. He will be deputy chief of staff for communications and personnel and assistant to the president. Leavitt , 27, was Trump's campaign press secretary and currently a spokesperson for his transition. She would be the youngest White House press secretary in history. Leavitt worked in the White House press office during Trump's first term. In 2022, she ran for Congress in New Hampshire, winning a 10-way Republican primary before losing to Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas. McGinley was Cabinet secretary during Trump's first administration and was outside legal counsel for the Republican National Committee's election integrity effort during the 2024 campaign. The 67-year-old Witkoff is the president-elect's golf partner and they were golfing at Trump's club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sept. 15, when the former president was the target of a second attempted assassination. Trump also named Witkoff co-chair, with former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler, of his inaugural committee. Kellogg , 80, is a highly decorated retired three-star general and one of the architects of a staunchly conservative policy book that lays out an “America First” national security agenda for Trump's second term. He has long been Trump’s top adviser on defense issues and served as national security adviser to Vice President Mike Pence . Kellogg also was chief of staff of the National Security Council under Trump and stepped in as an acting national security adviser for Trump after Michael Flynn resigned the post. Huckabee is a staunch defender of Israel and his intended nomination comes as Trump has promised to align U.S. foreign policy more closely with Israel's interests. Huckabee, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 and 2016, has been a popular figure among evangelical Christian conservatives, many of whom support Israel due to Old Testament writings that Jews are God’s chosen people and that Israel is their rightful homeland. Huckabee has rejected a Palestinian homeland in territory occupied by Israel. His daughter, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, served as White House press secretary in Trump's first term. Stefanik, 40, is a U.S. representative from New York and one of Trump's staunchest defenders dating to his first impeachment trial. She was elected chair of the House Republican Conference in 2021, the third-highest position in House leadership, after then-Rep. Liz Cheney was removed from the post after she publicly criticized Trump for falsely claiming he won the 2020 election. Stefanik’s questioning of university presidents over antisemitism on their campuses helped lead to two of those presidents resigning, further raising her national profile. A former acting attorney general during Trump's first administration and tight end on the University of Iowa football team, Whitaker , 55, has a background in law enforcement but not in foreign policy. A fierce Trump localist, Whitaker, is also a former U.S. attorney in Iowa and served as acting attorney general between November 2018 and February 2019 without Senate confirmation, until William Barr was confirmed for the role. That was when special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference was drawing to a close. Whitaker also faced questions about his past business dealings, including his ties to an invention-promotion company that was accused of misleading consumers. A Republican congressman from Michigan who served from 1993 to 2011, Hoekstra was ambassador to the Netherlands during Trump's first term. Oz , 64, is a former heart surgeon who hosted “The Dr. Oz Show,” a long-running daytime TV talk show. He ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate as the Republican nominee in 2022 and is an outspoken supporter of Trump, who endorsed Oz’s bid for elected office. Makary is a Johns Hopkins surgeon and author who argued against pandemic lockdowns. He routinely appeared on Fox News during the COVID-19 pandemic and wrote opinion articles questioning masks for children. He cast doubt on vaccine mandates but supported vaccines generally. Makary also cast doubt on whether booster shots worked, which was against federal recommendations on the vaccine. Nesheiwat is a general practitioner who serves as medical director for CityMD, a network of urgent care centers in New York and New Jersey. She has been a contributor on Fox News. Weldon is a former Florida congressman who recently ran for a Florida state legislative seat and lost; Trump backed Weldon’s opponent. In Congress, Weldon weighed in on one of the nation’s most heated debates of the 1990s over quality of life and a right-to-die and whether Terri Schiavo, who was in a persistent vegetative after cardiac arrest, state should have been allowed to have her feeding tube removed. He sided with the parents who did not want it removed. Bhattacharya , 56, is a critic of pandemic lockdowns and vaccine mandates. As head of the NIH, the leading medical research agency in the United States, Trump said Bhattacharya would work with Kennedy Jr. to direct U.S. medical research and make important discoveries that will improve health and save lives. Bhattacharya is professor at Stanford University School of Medicine and was one of three authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, an October 2020 open letter maintaining that lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic were causing irreparable harm. Gaetz, 42, withdrew from consideration to become the top law enforcement officer of the United States amid fallout over a federal sex trafficking investigation that cast doubt on his ability to be confirmed by the Senate. In choosing Gaetz, Trump had passed over more established lawyers whose names had been floated as possible contenders for the job. Gaetz resigned from Congress after Trump announced him on Nov. 13. The House Ethics Committee has been investigating an allegation that he paid for sex with a 17-year-old. Gaetz has denied wrongdoing. Associated Press writers Colleen Long, Zeke Miller, Farnoush Amiri, Lolita C. Baldor, Jill Colvin, Matthew Daly, Edith M. Lederer, Adriana Gomez Licon, Lisa Mascaro, Chris Megerian, Michelle L. Price, Will Weissert and Darlene Superville contributed to this report.

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ROME -- The U.S. special envoy for Sudan said Thursday, just days after his first visit to the war-wrecked country since taking his post, that he doesn't see enough of “political appetite” from the warring parties to reach a resolution to the conflict. The African nation plunged into conflict in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary leaders broke out in the capital of Khartoum and spread to other regions, including western Darfur. The fighting has left tens of thousands of dead, forced millions from their homes, and pushed a large swath of the population to starvation. Tom Perriello, who was appointed as special envoy in February, travelled to Port Sudan on Monday to meet with Sudanese officials, including the head of the military Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, whose troops have been battling the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces around the country for the past 19 months. Multiple attempts to broker a cease-fire have fallen apart , most recently in August, when the Sudanese military refused to attend U.S.-mediated talks in Geneva . Since then, fighting has only accelerated, and RSF forces have been accused by the United Nations of carrying out atrocities including killings of civilians and rapes in several parts of the country. “We do not yet see enough political appetite from the parties to find a real resolution to this conflict,” Perriello said in an interview with The Associated Press in Rome. He said any solution “has got to be about handing control back to the people.” Sudan had been trying to establish a civilian government after a popular uprising forced the removal of longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019. The short-lived transition to democracy was derailed when Burhan and Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, commander of the RSF, joined forces to carry out a military takeover in 2021. But Burhan and Dagalo soon fell out, and their long-simmering struggle for control erupted into battles in Khartoum in April 2023 and spread the other parts of the country. Since then, more than 20,000 people have been killed in the conflict , according to the U.N.. Some 14 million people — 30% of the population — have been forcibly displaced, either to other parts of the country or abroad in what the U.N. says is one of the world's worst displacement crises. The U.N. recently warned that the country has been pushed to the brink of famine , and more than 26.5 million people face acute hunger. “The numbers are so large that you can’t even get your head around the scale of human suffering,” Perriello said. He decried the situation in which the warring parties continue to commit atrocities while civilians are trapped in the chaos. “What we know is the numbers are astronomical,” Perriello noting that, “the death toll is probably more than anything that’s been estimated.” He pointed to reported atrocities carried out by RSF fighters last month in the Gezira state, southeast of Khartoum. “These are horrific, horrific abuses against women and children, in this case, primarily committed by the Rapid Support Forces, and multiple attacks on civilians, murdering of civilians," he said. During his visit, Perriello met with members of Sudanese civil society and humanitarian aid workers in an effort to improve movement of food and medicines to people across the country. He said the United States is working to stop countries that are arming the warring parties despite a U.N. arms embargo. Sudan’s ruling Sovereign Council, led by Burhan, accuses the United Arab Emirates, a U.S. ally, of arming the RSF — a charge that a U.N. panel of experts said was credible, though the UAE denies it. The RSF has also reportedly received support from Russia’s Wagner mercenary group. “We won’t speak to specific conversations, but the United States has been very clear with countries all over the world that we believe it’s time to stop fueling this war with more weapons,” Perriello said. Burhan has received Russian support and is a close ally of neighboring Egypt and its president, former army chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. In February, Sudan’s foreign minister held talks in Tehran with his Iranian counterpart amid unconfirmed reports of drone purchases for government forces. “We have way too many countries that are pouring weapons into Sudan who should be pouring in food and medicine," Perriello said. "We have way too many countries deciding to get involved, not in the interests of the Sudanese people, but to take advantage of the fragility of the state.” Perriello, who has worked on crises in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan and Sierra Leone, said he had never been involved in a disaster on such a massive scale that is getting so little attention from the rest of the world.