Top diplomats meet in Paris to mobilise aid for Sudan

Paris: A yearlong war in Sudan has devastated the country and pushed its people to the brink of famine. Top diplomats and aid groups are meeting Monday in Paris to drum up humanitarian support for the northeastern African nation to prevent further collapse and misery.

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.

Members of Sudan’s civil society and local NGOs are involved in the Paris meeting, but neither the Sudanese army nor its rival the RSF have been represented. The UN humanitarian campaign needs some USD 2.7 billion this year to get food, health care and other supplies to 24 million people in Sudan – nearly half its population of 51 million. So far, funders have given only USD 145 million, about 5 per cent, according to the UN’s humanitarian office, known as OCHA.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the international community to donate generously and support the UN’s life-saving efforts to help Sudanese people, trapped in the “nightmare of bloodshed”.

More than 14,000 people have been killed and at least 33,000 have been injured in a 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 United Nations. Hunger 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. He added: “It’s time to support the Sudanese people. It’s time to silence the guns.” French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said the aim of Monday’s conference is to mobilise humanitarian funding to help Sudanese people, who have been victims of both a “terrible war” and “international indifference.”

“It’s a colossal task,” Sejourne said. “It’s a war the Sudanese people did not want, a war that only produces chaos and suffering,” he added.

The EU’s crisis management commissioner, Janez Lenarcic, said the 27-member bloc seeks to ensure that Sudan is not forgotten.