PARIS, France
World donors pledged more than $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 Monday.
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 for 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.
"Today, from this
mobilisation, all of our presence, it sends a clear messages we are sending to
the belligerents. We are making a solemn appeal out of respect for
international humanitarian rights and for the protection of the civil
population," Macron said at the conference.
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 $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 $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.
“We cannot let this nightmare
slide from view,” Guterres said in a video message to the Paris conference.
“It’s time to support the
Sudanese people. It’s time to silence the guns," he added.
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.
“People of Sudan, caught up in
this emergency, are almost completely invisible,” Lenarcic said. Sudan has
turned into one of the worst humanitarian disasters ever on the African
continent, he said, and added: “It is our duty not to look away.”
President of the International
Committee of the Red Cross Mirjana Spoljaric warned that humanitarian action is
increasingly politicized in Sudan and humanitarian workers are risking their
lives to get vital aid to people.
“Securing a military advantage
cannot be pursued regardless of the human cost,” Spoljaric said.
The United States and Saudi
Arabia initially led efforts to find a negotiated way out of the conflict. But
since October the fighting has been overshadowed by the Israel-Hamas war in
Gaza, which is threatening to expand into a broader regional conflict.
Relief workers, meanwhile,
warn that Sudan is hurtling towards potential mass death in the coming months.
Food production and distribution networks have broken down and aid agencies are
unable to reach the worst-stricken regions.
The conflict has also been
marked by widespread reports of atrocities including killings, displacement and
rape, particularly in the area of the capital and the western region of Darfur.
At least 37% of the population
at crisis level or above suffer from hunger, according to OCHA. Save the
Children warned that about 230,000 children, pregnant women and newborn mothers
could die of malnutrition in the coming months.
“Famine is a reality in
Sudan,” said Abdallah al-Dardari, a regional director of the U.N. Development
Program.
The military, headed by Gen.
Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and the RSF, commanded by Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo,
have carved up Khartoum and trade indiscriminate fire at each other. In 2021,
Burhan and Dagalo were uneasy allies who led a military coup. They toppled an
internationally recognized civilian government that was supposed to steer
Sudan’s democratic transition.
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