Europe live: over €1bn to be pledged for Sudan at Paris conference on first anniversary of war

British Foreign Office officials are holding secret talks with the paramilitary group that has been waging a campaign of ethnic cleansing in Sudan for the past year.

News that the British government and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are engaged in clandestine negotiations has prompted warnings that such talks risk legitimising the notorious militia – which continues to commit multiple war crimes – while undermining Britain’s moral credibility in the region.

One human rights group described the UK’s willingness to negotiate with the RSF as “shocking”. In December, the US accused the paramilitary force of committing crimes against humanity as it carries out widespread massacres and rapes of civilians, many from the African Masalit ethnic community.

The revelations come as the war between the RSF and Sudan’s military reaches its first anniversary on Monday.

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Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, has said the war in Sudan “has triggered the worst humanitarian crisis in the world” and “we must put an end to this man-made disaster.”

According to the latest data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), “about 25 million people – of whom over 14 million are children – need humanitarian assistance and support” in Sudan.

“17.7 million people – more than one-third of the country’s population – are facing acute food insecurity,” according to OCHA, while “of these, 4.9 million people are on the brink of famine.”

Moreover, “more than 8.6 million people – about 16 per cent of the total population of the country – have fled their homes since the conflict started.”

Speaking at a press conference in Paris, Janez Lenarčič, the European commissioner for humanitarian aid and crisis management, said “the first thing that we have to do is to make sure that Sudan is not forgotten.”

“Today, the people caught in this emergency are almost completely invisible. Other devastating crises have overtaken the news from around the world,” he said.

Lenarčič added:

One year since the war broke out, Sudan is in a state of collapse. The country has turned into one of the worst humanitarian disasters ever on the African continent. Grave violations of international humanitarian law continue unabated. As EU commissioner for humanitarian aid, I am strongly convinced that it is our duty not to look away.

The international community, he said, must act together and must act now.

The European Commission will announce a contribution of nearly 355 million euros for 2024, he noted.

Today’s conference in Paris will hopefully raise “well over a billion euros” for Sudan, a French diplomatic source told Reuters.

The EU will pledge 350 million euros, France will add 110 million euros and the United States will invest a total of $147 million, sources told Reuters.

Germany pledged 244 million euros earlier on Monday.

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France, Germany and the European Union are co-organising an international humanitarian conference for Sudan and its neighbours today in Paris on the first anniversary of a war which the UN has described as “one of the worst humanitarian disasters in recent memory”.

Stéphane Séjourné, the French foreign minister, expressed his solidarity with the Sudanese people impacted by the war in a joint press conference this morning, and said the aim of the gathering is mobilising the international community.

Today’s conference, he said, will involve three meetings: a political meeting on mediation initiatives, a session on mobilising financing for humanitarian aid, and one with civil society actors.

There is an urgency to mobilise financing, he stressed.

A declaration of principles will be adopted today, the minister added.