‘Humanitarian aid in Sudan is constantly being blocked by all the belligerents’

With the international community having pledged more than €2 billion in funding for Sudan at a humanitarian conference in Paris on Monday, Norwegian Refugee Council Sudan Advocacy Manager Mathilde Vu breaks down the worsening humanitarian crisis in a country devastated by a year of brutal fighting.

One year ago on April 15, 2023, the first clashes broke out in Sudan’s capital Khartoum between the country’s regular armed forces led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) under General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. Since then, the conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and plunged the country into a deep humanitarian crisis. More than 6.7 million people are internally displaced in the country according to the UN, with a further 1.8 million refugees having fled to neighbouring countries such as Egypt and Chad. Much of the country’s infrastructure has been destroyed and the already crisis-hit economy has collapsed.

“This is why we’re meeting today: to break the silence that surrounds this conflict and mobilise the international community,” he said.

But even though the promises of aid are substantial, the figure is well below the €3.8 billion of aid that the UN estimates is needed.

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