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0 A high-level international conference is due to get under way in London to find “a pathway to peace” in Sudan, hosted by the UK’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy.
Sudan’s civil war began exactly two years ago causing what aid agencies call the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
The UK is promising an extra $120m (£91m) worth of food and medical assistance.
Charities say 30 million people, many who are facing hunger, desperately need humanitarian aid.
More than 12 million have been forced from their homes and tens of thousands killed, amid reports of rape and ethnic cleansing.
In recent days, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) launched an intense ground and aerial assault on camps for displaced people close to the city of el-Fasher in an attempt to seize the last state capital in Darfur held by their rival, the Sudanese army.
Zamzam, which has provided temporary shelter for an estimated 500,000 people, is now being systematically destroyed by fire from intentional arson by RSF forces, according to the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab, which has analysed satellite images taken of the camp.
The RSF has not commented on the allegation.
Tuesday’s ministerial conference is co-chaired by the UK, EU and African Union.
Officials say the aim is to unite international partners around a common position, to get more food and medicine into Sudan and find what Lammy calls a “pathway to peace”.
Neither of Sudan’s main warring parties – the Sudanese Armed Forces nor RSF – has been invited.
They will be represented instead by regional allies, some of whom diplomats say are fuelling the conflict. Among them is the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which is accused of arming the RSF, something it denies.
The war – a power struggle between the army and the RSF – began on 15 April 2023, after the leaders of the army and RSF fell out over the political future of the country.
