Senior diplomats and aid officials from around the world are gathering in London on Tuesday to find a pathway to end the brutal civil war in Sudan.
The one-day conference is being hosted by the UK, Germany, France, the European Union and the African Union.
Attendees include ministers from some 14 countries including Saudi Arabia and the United States, as well as representatives from the United Nations and other international institutions.
But no one representing Sudan will be present at the talks.
“The brutal war in Sudan has devastated the lives of millions — and yet much of the world continues to look away,” said British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who visited Chad’s border with Sudan in January.
“We need to act now to stop the crisis from becoming an all-out catastrophe, ensuring aid gets to those who need it the most,” he added.
Hundreds of millions worth of aid pledged
The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mirjana Spoljaric, said two years of “a ruinous war” in Sudan had left civilians “trapped in a relentless nightmare of death and destruction.”
She urged all parties to “take concrete steps” to protect civilians.
Ahead of the conference, Germany’s acting foreign minister Annalena Baerbock pledged €125 million ($142 million) in humanitarian aid to allow international and local aid organizations to deliver urgently needed food and medicine to people in need.
She called the conflict “the greatest humanitarian catastrophe of our time.”
Meanwhile, Lammy also announced £120 million in new assistance for the country. “The UK will not let Sudan be forgotten,” he vowed.
African Union’s commissioner for political affairs, Bankole Adeoye, said, “Achieving peace in Sudan depends on valuing every voice and everyone playing a role in building a prosperous Sudan.”
What’s the Sudan conflict about?
Sudan’s civil war broke out on April 15, 2023, in Khartoum and has since expanded throughout the country, plunging Africa’s third-largest nation into a humanitarian crisis.
The conflict stemmed from a power struggle between Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the leader of a paramilitary organization known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Dagalo and al-Burhan had previously shared power after a military coup in 2021 that ousted the transitional government put in place after the 2019 overthrow of longtime leader Omar al-Bashir.
But relations between the two strongmen soured, triggering the conflict.
The RSF are rooted in Darfur and control much of its territory, as well as parts of Sudan’s south.
The army reclaimed the capital Khartoum last month, and holds sway in the east and north, leaving the nation essentially divided in two.
Both the Sudanese army and the RSF have been accused of war crimes.
Civil war causes massive humanitarian crisis
At least 20,000 people have been estimated to be killed, but the death toll is likely to be much higher. Sexual violence is rampant, with estimates putting about 12 million women and girls in danger of gender-based violence.
The civil war has also prompted the world’s largest displacement crisis, with some 13 million people displaced to refugee camps and neighboring countries.
The World Food Program says nearly 25 million people — half of Sudan’s population — face extreme hunger.
There are also growing fears that the conflict will spill over Sudan’s border and stir tensions and instability across entire region.
Edited by: Zac Crellin
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