France hosts funding for Sudan aid

Not only have the Sudanese people been victims of a terrible war, but they have also suffered from indifference from the world, a French minister said

France and its allies yesterday sought to drum up hundreds of millions of dollars in aid for Sudan a year since its civil war erupted, sparking one of the world’s worst and most underfunded humanitarian crises.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and 8.5 million more have been forced to flee their homes since fighting broke out on April 15 last year between rival generals.

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 UN said.

At the international conference in Paris, France is seeking contributions from the international community, and attention to a crisis that officials say is being crowded out of the global conversation by ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.

“For a year the Sudanese people have been the victims of a terrible war,” French Minister of Foreign Affairs Stephane Sejourne said.

Yet they had also suffered from “being forgotten” and “indifference,” he said.

“This is the reason for our meetings today: to break the silence surrounding this conflict and mobilize the international community,” he said in opening remarks.

The conference, cohosted by Germany and the EU, was to include a ministerial meeting on political matters, as well as a humanitarian meeting to raise funds for the crisis.

Aid workers say a year of war has led to a catastrophe, but the world has turned away from the country of 48 million as conflict rages between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Force.

Only 5 percent of the 3.8 billion euros (US$4.05 billion) target in the UN’s latest humanitarian appeal had been funded ahead of the conference this year, the French foreign ministry said.

At its opening, a total of 840 million euros had been pledged after separate announcements from France, Germany, the EU and the US.

A diplomatic source, asking not to be named, said total donations could well top “a billion euros” by the end of the meeting.

German Minister of Foreign Affairs Annalena Baerbock lamented that mediation efforts so far had failed to stem the conflict.

“We want to work towards better coordination,” she said.