French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Monday that Paris and its allies had pledged over €2 billion ($2.1 billion) to help alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Sudan.
This comes at the end of a conference bringing together diplomats from France, Germany, and the European Union in Paris, where they pushed for increased funding for Sudan on the first anniversary of the devastating war.
French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, top EU diplomat Josep Borrell, and the EU’s Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic were attending the meeting, along with representatives from Sudan’s civil society.
“We can announce that over 2 billion euros will be mobilized…. this support will be able to respond to the most urgent needs” of Sudan’s population, Macron said.
Sudan is experiencing “one of the worst humanitarian disasters in recent memory”, with more people displaced inside the country than anywhere else in the world and a fast-growing hunger crisis, the United Nations says.
Attention to Sudan’s plight from the international community has been crowded out by conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.
With the conference in Paris “our duty was to show that we are not forgetting what is going on in Sudan and there are no double standards” as the world focuses on other crises, Macron said.
The conference, co-hosted by Germany and the European Union, included a ministerial meeting on political matters in addition to the humanitarian talks.
In its final declaration the conference called for “all foreign actors” to end armed support for the warring parties, and for the belligerents to “immediately cease hostilities”.
The war in Sudan that began a year ago between the country’s military, chaired by Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo marked one year today.
The conflict has killed thousands and forced eight million people to flee their homes to safer areas inside Sudan or to neighbouring countries, according to United Nations figures.