France, Germany and the EU will co-host an international, ministerial-level conference in Paris to raise funds for Sudan and neighbouring countries on April 15, the first anniversary of the civil war, officials have told The National.
“We are facing an absolutely dramatic crisis on a humanitarian and geopolitical level,” said a source close to French Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Sejourne.
“In a context of increasing international crises, our intention is to shed light on this crisis, which must not become the forgotten crisis.”
The conference was announced by Mr Sejourne last month. He said at the time that it would “try to resolve the dramatic humanitarian crises plaguing this area”.
A representative for the German Federal Foreign Office confirmed that Foreign Affairs Minister Annalena Baerbock will co-host the event.
The representative told The National that the conference is "also intended to send a clear political signal to the warring parties to end the fighting."
Sudanese civil society will be closely involved in the event, they said.
Those invited also include Sudan's neighbours, international organisations such as the UN, and donors, as well as EU member states.
Fund-raising will be geared towards Sudan and neighbouring countries, where several hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees have fled.
-
Members of Sudanese Armed Forces outside the palace of the first Sudanese president after independence, late President Ismail Al Azhari, in Omdurman, Sudan. Reuters -
A member of Sudanese Armed Forces holds his weapon in the street in Omdurman, Sudan. Reuters -
A member of the Sudanese Armed Forces in Omdurman. Reuters -
A damaged car and houses in Omdurman, Sudan. Reuters -
Traders and donkey farmers gather in an open market in Gedaref state in eastern Sudan. AFP -
People use makeshift donkey-drawn tanks to re-supply with water in an open market in Gedaref state in eastern Sudan. AFP -
The Awulala refugee camp in Ethiopia's Amhara region. More than 100,000 people have crossed into Ethiopia from Sudan since April 2023, the UN refugee agency says. AFP -
Supporters of the Sudanese armed popular resistance, which backs the army, rally in Gedaref, amid the continuing conflict in Sudan between the army and paramilitaries. AFP -
Sudanese refugees waits in line to collect water at Kumer refugee camp, near Maganan, 70km from the Sudanese border in Ethiopia's Amhara regione. AFP -
A Sudanese refugee rests under a tree in the newly established Awulala refugee camp, near Maganan, 80km from the Sudanese border in Ethiopia's Amhara region. AFP
Also on the agenda will be humanitarian access, which presents “a real difficulty”, the French source said.
“The suffering of the Sudanese people is unacceptable and unbearable,” the source said.
Recent reports have highlighted the famine that has gripped parts of the country.
The World Food Programme warned last month that at least 25 million people were struggling with soaring rates of hunger and malnutrition.
Thousands of families are being displaced to Chad and South Sudan each week.
The programme is facing an almost $300 million funding gap for the next six months.
The Sudanese army rejected a call for a ceasefire during Ramadan, which began on Monday, saying it intended to continue to fight.
Residents in Khartoum told AFP they are struggling to feed themselves.
“Ramadan? We've been doing that for months,” resident Othman Idriss said by phone.
“We have been eating one meal a day for months and we no longer even have the means to prepare it ourselves.
“They serve it to us in a soup kitchen organised in a mosque.”
The army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have been found by the UN to have committed war crimes during the conflict.
