Sudan: EU neo-Colonial Syndrome

Brussels 15.04.2025 Today the EU Commissioner Hadja Lahbib participates in the UK high-level international conference on the Republic of the Sudan. In the context of addressing the dramatic humanitarian situation in the country, the European Commission and Member States have pledged €522 million in aid for 2025 at the High-level Conference for Sudan, co-hosted in London today by the Commission alongside the United Kingdom, France, Germany and the African Union.

The pledge occurs after two years of armed conflict which have devastated the country, and destroyed livelihoods of millions of Sudanese destroyed. While the Sudan’s civil war enters its third year, the conflict between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has displaced 13 million people, according to the United Nations.

Today in London out of the overall EU pledge, the Commission pledged €282 million. The remaining funding was pledged by EU Member States: Austria, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Malta, Poland, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

EU aid will provide urgently needed health and nutritional care, food assistance, water and sanitation, shelter, protection, and education to the most vulnerable households – the internally displaced, refugee families, and host communities.

We need a united diplomatic front: an immediate ceasefire, unhindered humanitarian access, and a path toward democratic transition. It’s time to act.

I thanked @DavidLammy at the #SudanConference for his strong leadership in mobilising international support for Sudan. pic.twitter.com/45Ds5fKyB5

— Hadja Lahbib (@hadjalahbib) April 15, 2025

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However the situation at the event in London is far from harmonious, while the Sudanese government has officially objected to the UK’s decision to host an international conference without inviting Sudanese authorities to participate.

Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Yusuf conveyed his position in a letter to his British counterpart David Lammy last week, according to a Sudanese Foreign Ministry statement.

The ministry said Yusuf’s letter expressed “Sudan’s objection to Britain holding a conference on Sudan without extending an invitation to the Sudanese government.”

The top diplomat criticized “the British government’s approach, which equates the sovereign Sudanese state — a UN member since 1956 — with a terrorist militia (the Rapid Support Forces RSF) committing genocide, crimes against humanity, and unprecedented atrocities against civilians.”

The army and RSF have been engaged in combat since April 2023, which has caused more than 20,000 people slain, and 15 million displaced, according to the UN and local Sudanese authorities. Research from U.S. universities, however, estimates the death toll much higher, mounting to 130,000 persons.

Minister Yusuf pointed to “evidence of Britain’s leniency toward the militia,” urging the UK to reassess its Sudan policy and engage constructively with the government “based on historical ties between the two nations.”