On Monday, Paris is set to inaugurate an international conference on Sudan, one year after the onset of a war that has resulted in catastrophic humanitarian consequences and significant geopolitical risks.
The conference, co-chaired by Germany, is divided into a political session in the morning at the ministerial level, aimed at exploring solutions to the conflict, and a humanitarian segment focused on mobilizing donations and delivering substantial aid to this devastated country in the Horn of Africa.
The event will also include a meeting of about 40 figures from Sudanese civil society.
Christophe Lomoy, Deputy Spokesman for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, emphasized the importance of recentering attention on the Sudanese crisis.
“The idea is to bring this crisis back to the forefront of the agenda. Sudan must not become a forgotten crisis,” Lomoy stated.
The French Foreign Ministry highlighted that “international focus tends to gravitate more towards Gaza and Ukraine than Sudan,” underscoring that the Sudanese crisis is both a humanitarian and a geopolitical issue.
“The risk of Sudan disintegrating and destabilizing the entire Horn of Africa is very significant,” the ministry added.
The Paris conference marks exactly one year since the conflict began between the army, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces, commanded by his former deputy, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo “Hemedti.”
The “donors’ conference” in Paris will address the dire lack of emergency funding in Sudan and neighboring countries, with a shortfall exceeding $2.5 billion.
Ongoing mediation efforts to resolve the Sudanese crisis have been stalled for months. Tom Perriello, the U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan, expressed hope on Thursday that the Paris conference would help restart talks regarding Sudan.
Within just one year, the war in Sudan has resulted in thousands of deaths, including up to 15,000 people in one of the cities in West Darfur, according to UN experts.
The war has also pushed the country’s population of 48 million to the brink of famine, destroyed already dilapidated infrastructure, and displaced more than 8.5 million people, per UN figures.
