Germany, France and the EU invite you to the Sudan meeting in the French capital. The Sudanese government speaks of a “violation of international law.”
“Catastrophe of apocalyptic proportions”: the Sudanese national flag on everyday Sudanese objects Photo: Umit Bektas / Reuters
SEDAN taz | A year after the outbreak of war in Sudan, the governments of France and Germany, as well as the EU Commission, are inviting people to a high-profile conference in Sudan. The one-day “International Humanitarian Conference for Sudan and Neighboring Countries” taking place this Monday in Paris aims to “redouble our efforts to end the suffering and silence the guns,” the Under-Secretary-General of UN Humanitarian Affairs, Mark Griffiths. daily The world. This is about more humanitarian aid, more pressure on the warring parties and more access to people in need in Sudan.
The background to the conference, which France first announced in March as an “inter-ministerial meeting,” is the dramatic escalation of the humanitarian crisis in Sudan and the simultaneous dramatic underfunding of international humanitarian aid.
This applies both to Sudan itself and to neighboring countries that have hosted more than six million Sudanese refugees. This year's UN aid appeal for the Sudan crisis, worth $4.1 billion, including $2.7 billion in Sudan itself and $1.4 billion in neighboring countries, has so far only been funded by about six percent. That should change on Monday.
“We cannot ignore the fact that we are facing a hunger crisis of almost apocalyptic proportions,” says a senior German diplomat. However, the focus of the Paris meeting is not just donor commitments. Germany also wants to bring together the various international mediation efforts, all of which have failed so far, to develop common basic principles to address the Sudan war.
“It is a fight between two almost equally strong and very different armed forces that are playing a perfect zero-sum game,” analyzes the diplomat. “One element that drives war is external support for the parties in conflict. “If we could close that, the war would probably end quickly.”
The RSF (Rapid Support Forces) insurgent militias receive significant support from the United Arab Emirates, but are also supported by Libya and Russian forces stationed there. The Sudanese government, in turn, can rely on its neighbor Egypt, but has also recently received military aid from Iran, such as drones for attacks on RSF-controlled cities. Its relations with Russia are also good.
Sudan's own harsh rejection of the conference fits this attitude. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has called the meeting a violation of Sudan's sovereignty and a violation of international law. refusedsince it is carried out “without consultation and coordination with the government and without its participation” and places a “legitimate government” on the same level as a “terrorist militia.”
This criticism is rejected in Berlin. This “is no surprise,” they say. “The improved coordination of international mediation initiatives sought by the Sudan Conference aims to increase pressure on the warring parties to engage in serious negotiations and stop fighting.”
The EU will also host a meeting with Sudanese civil society activists. However, one of the Sudanese women invited, activist Rabab Baldo, said she had rejected the invitation: “The priority should be a ceasefire, not humanitarian aid that ends up in the hands of the wrong people,” she complains. Conference organizers will probably still have a lot to clear up on Monday.