Donors pledged more than £1bn (about €1.15bn) at a Berlin conference on Wednesday to help civilians in Sudan, exceeding the host-organisers’ funding target and offering some relief for a country facing the world’s largest humanitarian emergency. Delegates committed roughly £1.13bn in total, an outcome German ministers described as a rare positive in a time of shrinking aid budgets.
Three years of fighting have left Sudan in dire need: two-thirds of the population — about 34 million people — require assistance. Organisers had set an indicative target of $1bn (around £740m), but the new pledges aim to help close a chronic funding gap. To date only 16% of the £2.1bn humanitarian appeal for Sudan this year has been financed.
Despite the funding announcements, prospects for peace remain bleak. Neither of the main combatants — the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) nor the Sudanese army — attended the Berlin talks, and negotiators reported little progress toward a ceasefire. UN secretary-general António Guterres warned delegates that “credible allegations of the gravest international crimes” continue to emerge from the conflict, highlighting widespread terror against women and girls and systematic sexual violence.
Guterres urged an immediate halt to hostilities and called for an end to external interference and arms flows that fuel the war. Echoing that concern, UK foreign secretary Yvette Cooper urged coordinated international action to stop weapons reaching the battlefield and said countries must confront how the world has failed the people of Sudan.
Diplomatic efforts by a group of mediators known as the Quad — the US, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE — have so far failed to secure meaningful progress. The UAE has been accused of backing the RSF, a charge it denies; Egypt is seen as supportive of the military.
Sudan’s foreign ministry, aligned with the army, criticised the Berlin meeting as exclusionary and accused Western states of a “colonial tutelage approach.” Outside the foreign ministry, hundreds of protesters gathered, many denouncing the UAE and its alleged role in the conflict.
On the sidelines, Massad Boulos, senior adviser for African affairs to former US president Donald Trump, said the United States was not taking sides and that its priority was humanitarian access. He said Washington was seeking a humanitarian truce to allow aid delivery and hoped any such pause would lead to a lasting ceasefire.
Germany’s foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, thanked donors and said the commitments were a welcome sign amid dwindling global humanitarian resources. Nevertheless, officials and aid agencies stressed that funding alone cannot replace the need for a political resolution to end the suffering in Sudan.