A donor conference in Paris secures broad commitments for the UN appeal for aid to Sudan. But it is still unclear how to end the war.

One year after the start of the conflict in Sudan, France organizes an aid conference together with Germany and the EU Photo: Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa

SEDAN taz | Important progress was made in funding humanitarian aid at the international conference on Sudan held in Paris on Monday. At the start of the conference, the EU Commission pledged €215 million to finance the UN appeal for aid for Sudan and another €140 million for the UN appeal for aid for the effects of the Sudan crisis on neighboring countries, a total of 355 million. According to Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens), Germany will contribute a total of 244 million euros for both appeals. France promised 110 million. The equivalent of 138 million comes from the United States.

At the beginning of the conference a total of 840 million euros was talked about and it was expected that the billion mark would be exceeded later. Before the conference, the UN Financial Tracking Service had recorded pledges of just $166 million for Sudan's aid appeal worth $2.695 billion (€2.53 billion), or just over 6 percent. hundred. There is no information available on the coverage of the regional appeal by the UN refugee agency UNHCR.

France, Germany and the EU Commission jointly organized the “International Humanitarian Conference on Sudan and its Neighboring Countries” at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Paris on the anniversary of the outbreak of fighting between the Sudanese government army and the insurgent paramilitary force. RSF (Rapid Support Forces) on March 15, 2023. The war has displaced more than eight million people and created an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.

According to new figures presented by the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Stéphane Séjourné, 27 million people in Sudan currently depend on humanitarian aid and 18 million are in “acute food insecurity”, that is, on the brink of famine, several million more than previously reported. The war in Sudan has become “before our eyes the largest refugee crisis in the world,” said Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, warning: “In the worst case, a million people will die of hunger this year”.

Money alone is not enough

But new financial commitments are not enough if the war continues unhindered. “It is not enough to announce additional millions,” Baerbock said after announcing Germany's million-dollar figure. “Only if all actors come together will we be able to exert the necessary pressure on the parties in conflict and bring them to the negotiating table.”

However, no specific means of pressure were mentioned, at least not publicly. Neither the Sudanese government nor RSF were invited to the conference: a conscious decision, as the French government made clear. Instead, at a political meeting before the start of the donor conference, the various international mediators met behind closed doors to adopt a joint declaration of principles. At the same time, representatives of Sudanese civil society met at the Arab World Institute in Paris.

French Foreign Minister Séjourné cited free access to humanitarian aid, a sustainable ceasefire and a return to a democratic transition under civilian leadership as basic principles. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell also called for a “humanitarian ceasefire” to allow immediate aid to prevent famine.