<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares has warned that the situation Sudan is experiencing due to the armed conflict is “the worst humanitarian crisis on the planet,” and has reiterated his call for “a ceasefire, the protection of the civilian population, and respect for international humanitarian law.”</strong></h4> “The humanitarian situation in Sudan is the worst crisis on the planet,” Albares wrote on social media on April 18, marking the second anniversary of the start of the conflict that erupted in April 2023 in the capital, Khartoum, between the Sudanese Army and the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces. “Two years of armed conflict have left almost 15 million forcibly displaced people,” he continued. “We reiterate the call for a ceasefire, the protection of the civilian population, and respect for international humanitarian law,” he added. “Spain has contributed €5.85 million through AECID to alleviate the situation of Sudanese civilians,” he concluded. In mid-March, the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) announced a €1.5 million contribution to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies' emergency appeal to assist victims of the armed conflict in Sudan. The appeal, first launched in May 2023, has been expanded to serve approximately three million people affected by the country's internal conflict, the Agency reported in a press release. After almost two years of sustained crisis, the needs are even more dire, and the number of people requiring humanitarian assistance has tripled. Since April 2023, according to AECID, more than twelve million people have been displaced to escape the violence, eight million of whom are internally displaced and the rest have fled to neighboring countries. Given the ongoing conflict and the destruction of infrastructure, along with climate emergencies, internal displacement is expected to continue and humanitarian needs to worsen. Sumar, the minority party in Pedro Sánchez's coalition government, recently called for "Spain's leadership" in favor of a ceasefire in Sudan and advocated for the deployment of "European peacekeepers to protect civilians" as soon as "the right conditions" exist. In a non-legislative motion presented on March 21 for debate in the Committee on International Development Cooperation, the Sumar Plurinational Parliamentary Group asserts that the humanitarian situation in the country "is critical: tens of thousands of people have been killed, millions have lost their homes, and there is a declared famine in northern Darfur that the United Nations has described as the worst in modern history." It also warns that Sudan is a strategic country connecting the Sahel, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and the Red Sea, "strategic regions for Africa and Europe," and that "there are risks" that the conflict could spread "to other countries and regions, particularly in the Sahel, where armed violence has persisted since 2011."
