Sudan war marks one-year anniversary as donor conference is held in Paris

• Published date: 15 April 2024
• Author: SALLY HAYDEN
• Publication title: Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland)

A major political and donor conference will take place in Paris today to mark the first anniversary of Sudan’s war, which is being called the worst displacement crisis in the world by the United Nations

Senior aid officials have been holding weeks of briefings, as they appeal for more attention and funding for what is widely being called a “forgotten” war.

By yesterday, the United Nations Humanitarian Response plan for Sudan for 2024 was less than 6 per cent funded, with $155.2 million (€145.45 million) raised of a projected $2.7 billion needed.

Sudan – Africa’s third largest country geographically, with a population of roughly 45 million – erupted into conflict on April 15th, 2023. The Sudanese army, commanded by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has been fighting against the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group, led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti.

Both sides stand accused of war crimes, and the full death toll is unknown, though a UN report found that as many as 15,000 people may have been killed in one West Darfur city last year in ethnic violence perpetrated by the RSF. By March, nine million people were displaced inside Sudan, two thirds as a result of the last year of fighting. More than 1.9 million more had fled into other countries, according to the UN.

Today’s conference will be co-chaired by French foreign minister Stéphane Séjourné, German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.

“It is clear that the people of Sudan can no longer wait,” said Sofia Sprechmann Sineiro, the secretary general for CARE International, in an online press conference last week. “This is a crisis within a crisis and the current war must be understood in that context of years of protracted conflict, economic hardship, suspensions of life-saving funding and climate shocks as well.”

She said that the Paris conference is a chance to “turn the tide”. It “must be a turning point in the global response to this conflict . . . We need global leaders in Paris...