Berlin and Paris call for support for Sudanese people amid civil war

PARIS: German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and her French counterpart Stéphane Séjourné have called on the international community to provide urgent support for Sudan at the start of an aid conference on the northeast African country in Paris.

One year after civil war erupted in the country, the Sudanese had become victims of being forgetten, in addition to being victims of displacement and hunger, Séjourné said. “Today we are placing a forgotten crisis on the agenda,” she added.

Baerbock pledged a sum of €244 million ($260 million) to Sudan and its neighbours in addition to earlier funding. She called on all countries attending the donor conference “to likewise make a contribution.” Together, a dreadful catastrophe could be avoided, she said.

“The largest refugee crisis in the world” was being played out “before our eyes,” Baerbock said. Refugee camps in southern Sudan were overflowing, with fresh arrivals every day who could not be provided for.

Food, drinking water, baby food, medicines, clothing, schooling, accommodation and “above all psychological counselling” were all in short supply, she said.