Updated: 9:15am (AEST)
London, UK
Reuters
The European Union and Britain pledged on Tuesday to increase aid for Sudan, at a conference in London marking the second anniversary of a conflict that has displaced millions and devastated the country.
Britain said the conference aimed to improve the coherence of the international response to the crisis, although Sudan’s government criticised the gathering because no representative from either side of the conflict was invited.
Bankole Adeoye, Political Affairs, Peace and Security Commissioner for the African Union, Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy and French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot, attend the London Sudan conference, marking the two-year anniversary of the Sudan conflict, at Lancaster House, in London, Britain, on 15th April, 2025. PICTURE: Reuters/Isabel Infantes/Pool
In a statement, the conference’s co-chairs called for an immediate and permanent ceasefire to end the conflict and backed the transition to a civilian-led government elected by the Sudanese people.
“The international community stressed the necessity of preventing any partition of Sudan,” the co-chairs added. “The participants underscored that the non-interference by outside actors remains paramount.”
The European Union and member states pledged over €522 million to address the crisis while Britain announced an extra £120 million in aid.
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the international community had to persuade the warring parties to protect civilians and let aid in, and he hoped the conference would establish principles for future engagement.
“We do need patient diplomacy,” he told delegates at the start of the conference. “We cannot resign ourselves to inevitable conflict. We cannot be back here, one year from now, having the same discussion.”
Britain has co-hosted the conference with the African Union, the European Union, France and Germany. Egypt, Kenya and the United Arab Emirates are among the other attendees.
RAPE USED SYSTEMATICALLY AS A WEAPON OF WAR IN SUDAN, UN AGENCY WARNS
Rape is being used systematically as a weapon of war in Sudan, a UN agency warned on Tuesday, as the conflict marks its second year.
“We have seen a 288 per cent increase in demand for life saving support for rape and sexual violence survivors. We are beginning to see the systematic use of rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war,” Anna Mutavati, the regional director of UN Women, told reporters in Geneva via video link from Port Sudan.
“Women’s bodies have turned into a battleground,” she said, without saying which side in Sudan’s war was responsible.
The war between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces erupted in April, 2023, shattering hopes for a transition to civilian rule.
The conflict has since displaced millions and devastated regions like Darfur, where the RSF is fighting to maintain its stronghold amid army advances in Khartoum.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg, not everyone is coming forward because there is shame and victim blaming that is attached to every woman that has been raped and gang raped,” she said.
A UN fact-finding mission last year described levels of sexual abuse, including child rape, as “staggering”. The majority of known cases were perpetrated by the RSF and its allies, the mission said, noting it was more difficult to report in army-controlled territories.
A representative of another UN agency said on Tuesday he had met women in Khartoum who told him they had been sexually assaulted in front of their injured husbands and screaming children.
“It is the first time in my life I have seen women who have been abused to that extent,” said Mohamed Refaat, head of the International Organization for Migration’s mission in Sudan.
Britain is co-hosting a London conference on Tuesday, aiming to improve coordination of the international response to the crisis. Sudan’s foreign minister has criticised the presence of the UAE and Kenya at the talks and said Sudan should have been invited.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration on Tuesday condemned attacks by the RSF on civilians in North Darfur and called for parties in the country’s civil war to be held accountable for breaches of international humanitarian law.
“We are deeply alarmed by reports the RSF has deliberately targeted civilians and humanitarian actors in Zamzam and Abu Shouk,” US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters, referring to two camps in the region where hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced in recent days, according to the UN.
“The belligerents must uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law and must be held accountable,” Bruce added.
The warring parties should put down their guns and negotiate a durable peace, said Bruce, who declined to say if the US was conducting diplomacy toward a settlement.
Bruce also declined to say whether the Trump administration agreed with a finding by the State Department under former President Joe Biden that the RSF and allied militias have committed genocide in the conflict.
– OLIVIA LE POIDEVIN, SIMON LEWIS, KANISHKA SINGH, Geneva, Switzerland/Reuters
Sudan’s foreign minister has complained to Lammy, saying Sudan should have been invited, while criticising the presence of the United Arab Emirates and Kenya.
Sudan accuses the UAE of arming the RSF, a charge that UN experts and US lawmakers have found credible, and it has taken a case against it to the International Court of Justice in the Hague. The UAE has denied the allegation and asked for the case to be thrown out.
Sudan also recalled its envoy to Kenya after it hosted talks between the RSF and its allies to form a parallel government.
Lana Nusseibeh, assistant minister for Political Affairs at the UAE’s foreign ministry, said both sides were committing atrocities and aid was being deliberately blocked.
“As Sudan’s devastating war enters its third year, the United Arab Emirates issues an urgent call for peace,” she said in a statement.
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Devastation
Organisers hope the conference draws attention to a conflict where Britain says 30 million people desperately need aid and 12 million have been displaced.
Luca Renda, the UNDP Resident Representative in Sudan, told reporters there was hope for “a more co-ordinated and coherent approach of the international community,” adding “Sudanese people are tired of this war.”
“The greatest humanitarian catastrophe of our time is unfolding before the eyes of the world,” German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said in a statement.
On Tuesday, lawyers acting for Sudanese victims also submitted a 141-page dossier outlining alleged war crimes committed by the RSF to the UK police’s special war crimes unit, with a request to pass the file to the International Criminal Court, which has jurisdiction over atrocity crimes in Darfur.
– Additional reporting by MOHAMED EZZ in Cairo, Egypt; MADELINE CHAMBERS in Berlin, Germany; BART MEIJER in Brussels, Belgium; OLIVIA LE POIDEVIN in Geneva, Switzerland; and STEPHANIE VAN DEN BERG in The Hague, The Netherlands
