Nearly $1.8bn pledged for Sudan

Donors at a Berlin conference pledged more than 1.5 billion euros, or about $1.77 billion, for Sudan as the war entered its fourth year. (reuters.com) German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul announced the total on April 15 after the third International Conference for Sudan. Officials from more than 50 states and dozens of Sudanese and international aid groups attended. (reuters.com) Germany said it would add 20 million euros, about $23.6 million, this year. The conference was co-hosted by Germany, the African Union, the European Union, France, the United Kingdom and the United States. (reuters.com; unric.org) The money comes as Sudan’s humanitarian crisis keeps widening faster than diplomacy. United Nations officials said roughly 34 million people need aid, nearly 14 million have been displaced, 19 million are going hungry and 10 million children are out of school. (news.un.org) Tom Fletcher, the United Nations aid chief, called Sudan an “atrocities laboratory” in Berlin. He said drones had killed 700 people this year and 130 humanitarians had been killed over three years. (news.un.org; unocha.org) The war began on April 15, 2023, between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces after a power struggle between the army and the paramilitary group. Three years later, neither side sent representatives to Berlin because there was no ceasefire agreement. (news.un.org; reuters.com) Berlin’s organizers did not present the meeting as a peace conference. They said it was meant to raise aid, protect access routes such as the Adre crossing from Chad into Darfur, and give more space to Sudanese civilian voices. (news.un.org; unric.org) Human Rights Watch said the conference opened amid fighting in Kordofan and Blue Nile and after months of drone strikes on hospitals and other civilian sites. The group said a United Nations fact-finding mission found that Rapid Support Forces attacks around El Fasher bore the “hallmarks of genocide.” (hrw.org) The United Nations says funding still cannot replace a political settlement. Secretary-General António Guterres told the Berlin meeting that “this nightmare must end,” even as donors tried to keep Sudan from slipping further off the diplomatic agenda. (news.un.org; reuters.com)