Donors at a global conference pledged more than $2.1 billion in aid for Sudan. The pledges come after a yearlong war that, according to many aid workers, has pushed the Sudanese people to the brink of famine.
Monday’s conference in Paris, France, involved 58 countries. The meeting’s purpose was to drum up support for Sudan and call on regional powers to stop funding Sudan’s war.
French President Emmanuel Macron says the promised aid will go to food, water, medicines, and other urgent needs.
Top diplomatic envoys, United Nations officials, and aid agencies urged Sudan’s warring parties to stop attacks on civilians and allow access for people delivering aid. Some Sudanese people attended the Paris meeting. But no representatives of the Sudanese army or rival rebel fighters were there.
Last year, tensions between the army and the rebel Rapid Support Forces (RSF) exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere across the country. Sudan descended into full-scale conflict in April 2023.
The military is led by General Abdel-Fattah Burhan. The RSF commander is General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo. The two warring factions carved up Khartoum. In 2021, Burhan and Dagalo led a military coup as uneasy allies. They toppled a globally accepted civilian government that was supposed to lead Sudan to democracy. In 2023, they began fighting each other for control.
Janez Lenarčič is the European Union’s crisis management commissioner. He says the EU wants to ensure that Sudan is not forgotten as wars in Gaza and Ukraine dominate global news.
“People of Sudan, caught up in this emergency, are almost completely invisible,” Lenarčič says.
More than 14,000 people have been killed and at least 33,000 have been wounded in the year-long war. Nearly nine million people fled their homes. Many of the country’s homes, hospitals, and schools are now rubble.
“Much of the world has been focused on the crisis . . . in the Middle East,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres says. “As concerning as those developments are, other dramatic life-and-death emergencies are being pushed into the shadows.” He adds, “The world is forgetting about the people of Sudan.”
Relief workers in Sudan warn of possible mass death in the coming months. Food networks have broken down. Aid agencies are unable to reach the worst-hit regions.
The United Nations’ campaign needs about $2.7 billion this year to get food, health care, and other supplies to 24 million people in Sudan. That’s nearly half the population.
Lenarčič calls the conflict in Sudan one of the worst disasters ever on the African continent. He adds, “It is our duty not to look away.”
Pray for God to bring peace and provision to Sudan.
