EU parliament debates Sudan conflict, calls for civilian transition

Sudan is the largest displacement crisis in the world, Věra Jourová, Vice President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency, said as the European Parliament debated the situation in the war-torn country on Tuesday.

"The conflict in Sudan has generated displacement at levels unseen since the war in Syria. It's now 10.9 million internally displaced persons in Sudan and an additional 2.2 million people having crossed the border into the neighboring countries," Jourová said in Strasbourg.

"In my opinion, nothing more clearly exemplifies how European development policy is off track than in what has happened in Sudan over the last five years," Barry Andrews, MEP for Dublin, said.

Maria Walsh, MEP for Midlands North-West, said Sudan is "the only place in the world where a full scale famine has been declared in years."

"Some estimate that 2.5 million citizens could die by the end of the year," she added.

Sudan plunged into conflict in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary leaders broke out in the capital, Khartoum, and spread to Darfur and other regions.

Some 10 million have been internally displaced and the country is engulfed in a humanitarian crisis.

Tens of thousands of people have died in fighting.

The U.N. in September said some 25 million Sudanese risked famine without more donations.

Cholera cases increased by nearly 40% in less than two weeks in the country, according to the latest figures, alarming the U.N. health officials, who long warned about the outbreak and the lack of proper response since it was reported in July.