International donors pledged €1.5 billion in humanitarian aid for Sudan at a conference in Berlin on 15 April. The sum, while significant, covers less than half of the UN’s $2.8 billion appeal for the year.

Why it matters

Sudan’s war has displaced 14 million people, killed an estimated 400,000, and left 33.7 million in need of humanitarian assistance. Before the Berlin conference, the 2026 appeal was only 16% funded.

What was pledged

More than 60 delegations attended the conference, co-hosted by Germany, the African Union, the EU, France, the UK, and the United States. The EU and its member states contributed the largest share, pledging more than €811 million.

Germany committed €212 million ($250 million) in direct humanitarian aid. Host Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul called the war “one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes of our time.”

The African position

South Africa’s Department of International Relations called for both the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces to be brought to negotiations. The African Union backed this position, arguing that excluding the warring parties from the conference limited its ability to advance a political settlement.

Neither military faction was invited to Berlin. Organisers said the conference focused on humanitarian commitments, not peace talks.

What the UN said

UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher described Sudan as “an atrocities laboratory” where systematic sexual violence, starvation, and displacement continue unchecked. Close to 2,500 survivors of sexual violence received treatment over the past year.

The UN estimates that 30,000 people were displaced by fighting in Blue Nile state in the weeks before the conference. Aid convoys to Dilling in South Kordofan remain cut off.

What happens next

The pledges must be converted into actual disbursements, a process that has lagged in previous Sudan funding rounds. In 2025, the response plan was only 35% funded despite similar pledging events.

The African Union is expected to convene a separate process aimed at restarting ceasefire negotiations. South Africa has offered to host preliminary talks, though neither faction has publicly agreed to attend.