For two and a half years, two generals have been fighting for power in the Sudan, unleashing a civil war that has become the greatest humanitarian and displacement crisis of our time. This civil war is attracting less public attention than other crises and conflicts. The Federal Government is not losing sight of the suffering of the people in the Sudan, and is continuing to push for humanitarian access and a political process.

There are 25 million people in the Sudan suffering from acute hunger. Meanwhile, 15 million children are not going to school – that is more than the total number of school pupils in Germany. More than 11 million people have been displaced, some of them multiple times, by war and often by sexual violence. Cholera is spreading and the health system has almost entirely collapsed. We must assume that over 100,000 Sudanese people have been killed since April 2023. The situation is particularly terrible in the town of El Fasher, which has been under siege for more than 500 days, its people desperately hungry. The suffering is almost unimaginable.

I will arrive in Chad this evening. Over a million people have fled into the country from the Sudan, its neighbour to the east. Chad deserves our respect and support. The Federal Government is helping the refugees and host communities via the United Nations and humanitarian NGOs. I will visit the refugee camps near the Sudanese border to see this help in action. In the capital N’Djaména, I will speak with the government and will have the chance to talk to members of civil society as well.

I will then travel onwards to Port Sudan, in order to speak with the side based there about urgent improvements to the conditions for humanitarian assistance in the Sudan, and to demand an end to the violation of international and humanitarian law. Above all, I will urge progress in the political process. Germany and Europe support the peace plan established by the Quad – the US, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – in September. We are working together to see it implemented, beginning with a ceasefire and peace negotiations on the path to a civilian-led political transition process.

Germany is ready to continue providing resolute political and humanitarian support. After the London Sudan Conference in April, where we pledged 125 million euro in humanitarian assistance for the Sudan and affected neighbouring countries, we are now once again expanding our efforts. We are providing our humanitarian partners with a further 16 million euro, and I will be talking to the United Nations aid agencies and to the Sudan’s dedicated civil society about how we can use this funding primarily to alleviate the hunger crisis and the effects of sexual violence.

An end to the war in the Sudan is possible. Foreign Minister Wadephul and I are working unrelentingly for this terrible and overlooked war to finally come to an end.