New York, New York - The US on Wednesday announced $424 million in new aid for displaced and hungry Sudanese at a high-level meeting on the country's brutal war at the United Nations.

The US mission to the UN said the assistance includes $175 million, with which the US will buy surplus food from its own farmers to feed people in and around Sudan, where a UN-backed assessment has warned of wide-scale famine.

Addressing the event, the US ambassador to the United Nations made a new appeal to let assistance into El-Fasher, which has been besieged by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) as the paramilitary force seeks a complete takeover of the western Darfur region.

"We must compel the warring parties to accept humanitarian pauses in El-Fasher, Khartoum, and other highly vulnerable areas, eliminate barriers to humanitarian access along all routes, and put down their weapons and come to the negotiating table," said Linda Thomas-Greenfield.

Sudan plunged into a devastating war last year as the army battled the RSF.

The World Health Organization said this month, at least 20,000 people have been killed.

But some estimates are far higher, with the US envoy on Sudan, Tom Perriello, saying that up to 150,000 people may have died.