EU leaders announced more than €800m in new aid pledges to help the victims of Sudan’s three year civil war, at a summit on Wednesday, but there is still no end to the war in sight.
Benjamin Fox
EU leaders pledged more than €1.3bn in humanitarian aid for Sudan and backed a UN call for an arms embargo on the country at a summit in Berlin on Wednesday (15 April), in the latest attempt to move towards an end of a brutal three-year civil war
German foreign minister Johann Wadephul said the promised aid would help “alleviate somewhat the suffering of people in Sudan” and save lives, adding that donors were also showing “that this conflict has not been forgotten.”
The civil war in Sudan has been waged by two military leaders who fell out in early 2023, months after working together to oust a civilian-led government.
The death toll has exceeded 400,000 people, with an estimated 33 million displaced from their homes.
The EU, together with 16 member states, pledged €811.84m in aid.
The European Commission’s contribution is €360.8m, of which €215.5m will support people in need in Sudan, and €145.3, will go to neighbouring countries, including Chad, Uganda, Egypt and Libya, who are hosting several million Sudanese refugees who fled the war.
The aid funding is more than double the €522m raised at a summit hosted by the UK government in London last year.
The ‘no-shows’
But although the pledged funds for humanitarian aid was the German government’s headline from the summit in Berlin, the third since the start of the civil war in April 2023, the real interest was in who attended and who wasn’t invited.
Wadephul also backed a call by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, for a comprehensive arms embargo on Sudan. The stalemate in the war has, in part, being caused by the United Arab Emirates and other regional players arming different sides.
The role of the UAE, with whom the EU is currently negotiating a trade agreement, has been a source of criticism for Brussels.
In a nod to this, Wadephul commented that “the problem, as with this conflict in general, is how to implement it in practice.”
“There are many external actors involved in this war,” said Luca Renda, the UN Development Programme’s representative in Sudan.
“And as long as this continues, unfortunately, the chances of peace are very slim.”
The presence of Massad Boulos, senior adviser on Africa to US president Donald Trump, was billed as evidence of the momentum for a political settlement from the international community.
However, the so-called Quintet – composed of the African Union, Intergovernmental Authority on Development, League of Arab States, European Union, and the United Nations – had briefed that the meeting’s main focus would be a political dialogue involving over 40 civilian politicians and civil society leaders from Sudan.
