UN World Food Programme Urges Berlin Conference To Step Up For Sudan

NAIROBI, April 14 (Bernama-dpa) -- The deputy head of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), Carl Skau, hopes a Berlin conference will put the war in Sudan back at the top of the diplomatic agenda, German Press Agency (dpa) reported.

The International Sudan Conference, hosted by Germany, the African Union, the European Union, France, the United Kingdom and the United States, will be held in Berlin on Wednesday.

Skau told dpa the conference was an opportunity to strengthen humanitarian action for the war-stricken country.

Last year's humanitarian response for Sudan was funded at only about 40 per cent, leaving a gap of roughly €2.2 billion (US$2.6 billion), while millions went without assistance, the UN said.

Skau said he hoped donors would come forward.

"Not only with pledges, but also that those pledges then materialise. We need bigger volumes and we need more sustained deliveries and we need more capacity on the ground."

The WFP had capacity and experience to help, but there were two things it needed, he said.

"One is access, safe access at all sides to the conflict, really begin to allowing and facilitating aid, aid flows at a very different scale and without interference. The second is on money."

The Berlin conference could also deliver on a truce, Skau said.

"Some kind of halt in the fighting, because ultimately what we need here is, you need a political solution, a peace process of some kind, and that weapons are silenced."

Sudan has been gripped by war since April 2023, with fighting between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

The UN has described the conflict as the world's largest humanitarian crisis. Around 12 million people have been displaced and half the population faces hunger.

--BERNAMA-dpa