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World donors pledged more than USD 2.1 billion in humanitarian aid for Sudan after a yearlong war that has pushed its population to the brink of famine, French President Emmanuel Macron said recently
World donors pledged more than USD 2.1 billion in humanitarian aid for Sudan after a yearlong war that has pushed its population to the brink of famine, French President Emmanuel Macron said recently.
Macron spoke at the end of an international conference in Paris aimed at drumming up support for Sudan’s 51 million people. The aid will go to food, water, medicines, and other urgent needs, he said, without providing a specific timeline. Top diplomatic envoys, U.N. officials, and aid agencies urged Sudan’s warring parties to stop attacks on civilians and allow access to humanitarian aid and called for immediate international mediation efforts toward peace.
Members of Sudan’s civil society took part in the Paris meeting, but neither the Sudanese army nor its rival paramilitary were represented. Sudan descended into conflict in April last year when simmering tensions between the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere across the country.
The United Nations’ humanitarian campaign needs some USD 2.7 billion this year to get food, health care, and other supplies to 24 million people in Sudan — nearly half its population. So far, funders have given only USD 145 million, about 5%, according to the U.N’s humanitarian office, known as OCHA. More than 14,000 people have been killed and at least 33,000 have been wounded in the yearlong war.
Nearly 9 million people have been forced to flee their homes either to safer areas inside Sudan or to neighbouring countries, according to the U.N. Hunger, sexual violence against women and girls and continued displacement are rampant and much of the country’s infrastructure — homes, hospitals and schools — has been reduced to rubble.
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French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said the aim of the conference was to mobilize humanitarian funding to help Sudanese people, who have been victims of both a “terrible war” and “international indifference.” The European Union’s crisis management commissioner, Janez Lenarcic, said the 27-member bloc wants to ensure that Sudan is not forgotten as wars in Gaza and Ukraine dominate the international news.
