PARIS: Qatar on Monday announced a new pledge of $25mn to support fraternal Sudan based on its duty toward its generous people, bringing the total it has allocated since the outbreak of the crisis in the country to $75mn, in addition to the contributions of its civil institutions represented by Qatar Charity and Qatar Red Crescent Society, which has exceeded $11mn up to date.
This came in the State of Qatar's speech delivered by Minister of State for International Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs HE Lolwah bint Rashid Al Khater before the Paris conference on Sudan, which was held on Monday in the French Republic. She stressed that the conference comes at a significant time in which the fraternal Sudan and its generous people are witnessing one of the harshest contemporary humanitarian tragedies, as the displacement crisis in this large country due to the ongoing military conflict is the largest in the world at present.
She noted that the percentage of students outside the educational system is at the highest international level today, not to mention the atrocities, loss of life, and severe shortages of food and medicine that those generous people are witnessing.
Al Khater reiterated the importance of contributing to returning the Sudan issue to the international agenda and placing it in its rightful place on the list of priorities of the international community.
In this regard, she said that Qatar would like to emphasize a package of important principles to form the foundations upon which any international approach to the Sudanese issue is based. She explained that the first principle is to preserve Sudan's sovereignty, unity, territorial integrity, and institutions.
She stressed that the second principle is to achieve the interest of the fraternal Sudanese people, which begins by sparing their blood, restoring their security in their homeland, providing for their needs, and working to achieve the legitimate aspirations of its people in their homeland. She indicated that the third principle is to stop the external interference that contributed to igniting the fuse of this crisis from the beginning and continues to contribute to igniting fires instead of extinguishing them.
She believed that the solution to the Sudanese crisis would not be through perpetuating the current situation under any pretext and simply supporting refugees in Sudan's neighbouring countries as if the international community is contributing directly and indirectly to consolidating the current situation and transforming the Sudanese society into a society of refugees instead of contributing to resolving the roots of the crisis and helping the fraternal Sudanese people and their country's institutions to create the appropriate conditions for them to be able to live in their homeland with dignity.
Al Khater said that they are aware of the complexity of the situation and the difficulty of accessing aid and fieldwork in various areas in Sudan. Still, they have also witnessed a significant improvement in their ability to reach many areas. The performance of relevant institutions in Sudan such as the Ministry of Health, the Red Crescent, and others has improved significantly after the first shock that paralyzed their movement at the beginning of this conflict last April. She added that they can say today that these institutions are able to cooperate with countries and international institutions to provide facilities and secure the arrival of aid.
She pointed out that since the outbreak of this conflict, there have been important and worthy initiatives in the political track aimed at defusing the crisis and finding a peaceful way out of the Sudanese crisis, such as the efforts led by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through the Jeddah process and the active efforts of the African Union.
She stressed that Qatar praises these efforts launched from the region, looks forward to intensifying them during the coming period, and hopes that they will culminate with success.
Al Khater pointed out that in May, Qatar, in partnership with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Arab Republic of Egypt, and the Federal Republic of Germany, sponsored a donors' conference in Geneva, which resulted in the announcement of pledges of around $1.6 billion. In this regard, she expressed the State of Qatar's aspiration for all donor countries to fulfil those pledges, in addition to the new pledges at today's conference.