Deputy Administrator Isobel Coleman with France 24 on Sudan

MS. GEORJA CALVIN-SMITH: Thanks very much for staying with us. It's time now for Eye on Africa with me, Georja Calvin-Smith. Tonight, a neglected but devastating conflict - Sudan is the focus. A year on from the beginning of one of the world's worst humanitarian crises - Paris hosts a meeting to try and refocus the world's attention on an escalating war. Donors pledged billions of aid but a prospect for peace remains a distant one. I'm joined by the Deputy Administrator of USAID for a breakdown of the conference's impact.

So, Monday marked twelve months since war broke out in Sudan caused by a power struggle between rival generals. On one hand is the Army, headed by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. Also known as Hemedti on the other, the RSF paramilitary commanded by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. The fighting that erupted last April has since driven more than eight and a half million from their homes, triggered widespread reports of human rights abuses, brought the specter of Famine to the country, and cost at least, at a conservative estimate, 15 thousand lives.

On Monday, more than two billion euros were pledged by donors at a conference held here in Paris aimed at trying to mitigate the worst of the hardships faced by civilians stuck with the fallout of a conflict not of their making.

[Video of Josep Borrell]

[Video of Antonio Guterres]

While members of Sudanese Civil Society and other groups from the country did take part in Monday's meeting here in Paris. But neither the army nor the RSF were represented. Both have been accused of war crimes and present obstacles to international aid efforts. The militaries had said that it wouldn't allow aid to parts of the country controlled by the RSF whilst the RSF has been accused of looting aid that does make it through. Laurent Berstecher talks us through the progression but devastating war.

[Video package of Khartoum]

MS. CALVIN-SMITH: Well, efforts to help millions of people driven to the verge of Famine by the war have been held up by, no let up, inviting restrictions imposed by both the warring parties and demands on donors from other global crises, including in Gaza and Ukraine. Despite Monday's $2 billion, also pledged for Sudan, the United Nations are actually aiming to raise at least $2.7 billion for the country, and that's not including the $1.4 billion it reckons is needed to help neighboring countries like Chad, South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Central African Republic, who have taken in Sudanese refugees.

Well, for more on all of this, I'm joined now by USAID Deputy Administrator Isobel Coleman, who was at the meeting, which for the U.S. pledged about a $147 million. Isobel, thank you so much for making the time to come in and talk through some of what those conversations meant here in Paris on Monday.

Now, one of the things actually came out of it was a declaration calling for peace and also commending the efforts made - the international efforts made - so far to kind of find a diplomatic solution to the Sudanese crisis, but bearing in mind that as the report stated there, the truces haven't got very far. Neither side seems particularly interested in speaking to each other. What do declarations like this actually mean? What impact did they make?

DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR ISOBEL COLEMAN: Well, the declaration of principles that came out of the meeting this morning, I think, in fact, was very important to get all of the interested parties together speaking in one voice, and even that, I think is a step forward. You had important African countries, African institutions, Arab countries, and the United States all coming together to sign this declaration of principles. That really calls for a ceasefire, calls for access for humanitarian assistance, and calls for an end to this conflict.

So yes, it's words on paper, but it's a step in the right direction. And the next step, of course, is to get the belligerents back to the negotiating table because at the end of the day, this demands a political solution.

MS. CALVIN-SMITH: Do you feel that the absence of representatives from the RSF or the Sudanese military affected the impact or credibility of what was happening in Paris?

DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR COLEMAN: I don't think so. I don't think it negatively affected Paris. Today was really getting all of those parties that are around the conflict, to speak in one voice and come up with that declaration of principles, which they did. And it's also a pledging conference - getting all of the major donors together to assert that no, we have not forgotten Sudan. It is still one of our highest priorities. We recognize what a humanitarian crisis this is.

And the commitments that were made today, I think, bring added pressure on the belligerents. Added pressure to allow access for the humanitarian assistance that has now been pledged. And it really hangs on them - the growing crisis that exists in the country, the growing Famine as you mentioned. That it's them - these leaders - doing it to their own people, and it really draws attention to that.

MS. CALVIN-SMITH: So, as you highlighted, you know, that the conference really was about raising money to try and mitigate some of the suffering faced by the Sudanese civilians caught in the middle of all of this. You know, $2 billion is a lot. But bearing in mind your understanding of what's happening on the ground, do you think it goes far enough? And how much - what do you think should be the priorities with the money that has been pledged?

DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR COLEMAN: Clearly, it's not sufficient. It is a large amount of money, $2 billion, but it is not sufficient.

As you noted at the top, this is the largest displacement of people in the world today. In any one place - over eight and a half million people, many of them displaced internally, many of them have fled over the borders to neighboring countries, which themselves are very poor and vulnerable countries. So this is a conflict that is spilling outside of Sudan, it is affecting millions and millions of people. We now see five million people at risk of Famine, at the level just below Famine. The rainy season is about to start. We are very concerned over the next several months that more and more people will fall into Famine. We're already seeing children dying. Every day, we're seeing children dying of malnutrition. So it has started and it will get worse. And so we absolutely need the money that was pledged today. Plus additional funds to be able to [address] priorities - food, food assistance, it has to be able to come into the country and get to those who need it the most - those who are most vulnerable.

And, of course, the health system has been destroyed in Sudan. So meeting basic health needs, you have women dying in childbirth, for lack of basic health services. We're seeing outbreaks of cholera and measles - things that shouldn't be happening today in the way that they're happening in Sudan. So it's meeting the very basic needs of people - health, sanitation, water, and a lot of the water infrastructure has been destroyed. And Sudanese children are out of school and have been for a year. So we're facing a terrible future - a terrible situation now, and a real drain on the future going forward.

MS. CALVIN-SMITH: As important as all this international work is in terms of trying to address the needs of civilians in Sudan, what is the role of, let's say, local actors in making sure that any aid that is generated gets to where it needs to go in a context where, you know, as we've come up a couple of times, so far, we're dealing with combatants who have no real interest in making space for allowing assistance to get through unharassed.

DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR COLEMAN: Georja, in an otherwise completely bleak situation, I would say that the resiliency and the courage of local actors is one of the few bright spots. You've seen youth, and women led groups, and other groups just standing up and really being there to support their countrymen and countrywomen. Getting support to those local actors is one of our highest priorities. Part of that $100 million that we announced today, of that $15 million - so 15 percent - will go really to those very local actors who are doing incredibly important work on the ground, not only providing some very key basic services to those who need them the most, but playing a really important political role being a voice for what they want to see coming out of this, you know, they want to get back to a civilian-led government with a democratic transition. They know that at some point, the fighting will stop. And these local groups can provide the foundation to build and rebuild civil society that has, in many ways, been devastated by this conflict.

MS. CALVIN-SMITH: One of the concerns that were raised today and that has been raised throughout the conflict, has been the fact that despite the scale of the effects of the fighting, it remains relatively low-profile on the kind of - not international agenda, necessarily, but in public awareness as to what's happening on the global scale when it comes to conflict. Before I get your take on why that's so important, let's just hear what one of the concerns voiced on Monday was.

[Video of Antonio Guterres]

MS. CALVIN-SMITH: So we had [Antonio] Gueterres there, Isobel. Why for you, do you think public visibility of conflicts like this is so important? If you know international actors and aid agencies are doing what needs to be done, why does it need to be in the public consciousness quite so much?

DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR COLEMAN: When it is in the public consciousness, it makes it easier for us to be able to do our job - to sustain the level of support. There are many crises going on around the world, as you noted earlier, from Venezuela, to Ukraine, to Gaza, to Ethiopia, just next door. I'm on to Geneva tomorrow for a similar pledging conference on Ethiopia. So when publics are engaged, it reminds politicians and those who allocate the money to these types of humanitarian crises, that people care and people want to see impact and they want to see results, on the ground. And yes, leaders are going to try to do the right thing. But it really helps when they're hearing it from people, that they are engaged, that they're hearing about these conflicts and that they care.

It also helps to raise private resources. It's not just public sources, that was what was pledged today. But to help crowd in private resources too.

MS. CALVIN-SMITH: Thank you so much, Isobel Coleman, the Deputy Administrator of USAID on the situation in Sudan twelve months on since its devastating conflict first erupted. That's all we have time for Eye on Africa for now. Thanks for joining us, do so again. Take care.

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.