The UAE has committed to providing $100 million to support humanitarian efforts in Sudan and its neighbouring countries.
The pledge was made by Sheikh Shakhboot bin Nahyan, Minister of State, at an international conference in Paris to support Sudan, where millions are on the brink of famine due to a civil war that has raged there for a year.
Sheikh Shakhboot used the platform to remind the international community of the importance of a return to the political process in Sudan in order to secure a ceasefire in the region.
"There must collaboration [from the international community] to facilitate the ending of the conflict and a resolution to the crisis to enhance the security and stability of Sudan and prevent further loss of life," said Sheikh Shakhboot, according to state news agency Wam on Wednesday.
The total amount of relief aid provided by the UAE, for those affected by the conflict has reached $150 million, which includes medical, food and relief supplies, Wam reported.
The UAE has also established a field hospital in Abéché city, in the Republic of Chad, with a cost of $20 million, the second hospital opened by the UAE to support Sudanese refugees.
The Paris conference, organised by France, Germany and the European Union, also saw donors pledge more than €2 billion ($2.1 billion) earlier in the week to those afflicted by the continuing conflict in Sudan.
The Sudanese civil war has led to the largest displacement crisis in the world, with more than nine million people forced to flee.
About 18 million people are also at risk of starvation.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
GROUPS AND FIXTURES
Group A
UAE, Italy, Japan, Spain
Group B
Egypt, Iran, Mexico, Russia
Tuesday
4.15pm: Italy v Japan
5.30pm: Spain v UAE
6.45pm: Egypt v Russia
8pm: Iran v Mexico
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
