The international community, meeting Monday in Paris, pledged to provide more than 2 billion euros in funding for Sudan (almost CA$3 billion), calling on “all foreign actors” to cease their armed support for the belligerents in a conflict that has been raging for a year in this country.
“In total, we can announce that more than two billion euros will be mobilized” for the Sudanese victims of a war which “produces only sorrow and suffering,” declared French President Emmanuel Macron. Barely €190 million in commitments had been registered before the conference, he said.
Of the two billion, European Union member countries will contribute 900 million euros (CA$1.3 billion), including 110 million for Paris, 244 for Berlin, and 350 for Brussels. Washington, for its part, has committed to donating 138 million euros (around CA$202 million).
The United Nations, however, estimated the amount of aid needed for Sudan at US$3.8 billion (CA$5.5 billion) for 2024.
“We are pleased that the commitments made by a whole series of States today are significant”, but this “remains well below the needs”, reacted the general director of the NGO Solidarités Internationales, Kevin Goldberg.
Fourteen countries, including Germany, France, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Chad, and the UN also adopted a joint declaration in which they called on “all foreign actors” to “cease to provide armed support or material to the parties to the conflict.”
“Crimes against humanity”
“For a year, the Sudanese have been victims of a terrible war,” lamented earlier the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Stéphane Séjourné.
The international community must react to ease the “unspeakable suffering” and the feeling of abandonment of the Sudanese, victims of the war waged by “two ruthless generals”, said its German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock.
The multiple mediation initiatives have remained ineffective, she continued, calling “to work towards better coordination” and to “act in concert to bring the belligerents to the negotiating table and achieve a ceasefire.” “.
From the United Nations, UN Secretary General Antònio Guterres spoke of probable “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” committed by both parties.
War broke out on April 15, 2023 between forces loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhane and those of Mohamed Hamdane Daglo, his former deputy and commander of the rapid support paramilitary forces.
Millions of displaced people and food crisis
“Only international pressure” will push the belligerents to negotiate, added the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell.
“Beyond financing, we must put pressure so that there is an immediate ceasefire because if we continue like this, in a year, Sudan risks disintegrating,” warned the head of Chadian diplomacy, Mahamat Saleh Annadif.
And the risk is to destabilize the entire Horn of Africa, the war having pushed many Sudanese to take refuge in neighboring countries.
Some 8.6 million people have been displaced by the fighting, including millions in Chad and South Sudan, in what is “the largest displacement crisis [de population] in the world right now,” said International Organization for Migration Director General Amy Pope.
The food crisis in Sudan could also be “the biggest ever”, warned the executive director of the World Food Program, Cindy McCain, in an interview with AFP.
According to the UN, in the coming months, almost five million people could plunge into “catastrophic food insecurity”, the highest level of the Integrated Food Security Classification (IPC) scale.
More fighters
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, has warned of a further escalation of violence as parties to the conflict arm civilians and more armed groups join the fighting.
“The recruitment and use of children by parties to the conflict is also of great concern,” he also said.
While 25 million people, half the Sudanese population, need aid, “there has been no food distributed since May last year” in the Zamzam camp, where “the situation is inevitably getting worse,” according to Claire Nicolet, head of emergency operations in Sudan for Médecins sans frontières. In January, the organization revealed that a child was dying every two hours in this Darfur camp, where 400,000 people live.
Deputy director of the Africa division of the NGO Human Rights Watch, Laetitia Bader calls for sanctions against “individuals or entities” guilty of “deliberately obstructing humanitarian aid” and for investigations for “war crimes” .
On Monday, the United Kingdom announced new sanctions targeting companies that support the belligerents.
Canada did the same against those it accuses of perpetuating Sudan’s civil war, sanctioning Sudanese paramilitary commander Abdelrahim Hamdan Dagalo and former foreign minister Ali Karti, who led an Islamist group opposed to the regime. democratic, as well as four companies
For months, Africa experts and the New Democratic Party have criticized the Liberals for failing to follow the lead of comparable countries, such as the United States, in imposing sanctions against those who empower “lords”. of war “.
With The Canadian Press