An international conference rallies aid for Sudan after 2 years of civil war, but peace is elusive

LONDON (AP) — Britain and the European Union pledged hundreds of millions of dollars Tuesday to ease suffering in Sudan, on the second anniversary of a civil war that has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced 14 million and pushed large parts of the country into famine.

But a conference in London failed to produce a diplomatic breakthrough to end what the United Nations calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

The African Union, which co-hosted the conference with Britain, France, Germany and the EU, called for an immediate cessation of hostilities. But U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy acknowledged that achieving peace would take time, renewed international effort and “patient diplomacy.”

Diplomats expressed hope before the meeting of forming an international group to try to spearhead talks on ending the war. But the conference produced no communique signed by all members, just a final statement from the host countries and organizations.

The statement made no mention of any coordinating group, but said that “neighboring states are directly affected by the conflict in Sudan and those present supported efforts to find a solution.”

The conference hosts said participants had committed more than 813 million pounds (more than $1 billion) for Sudan and its neighbors this year. That includes 522 million euros ($590 million) from the EU and its member states and 120 million pounds ($158 million) from the U.K.

Avaaz, a group that campaigns against conflict and poverty, said the conference had been “a damp squib.”

“David Lammy promised Sudan would not be forgotten. Today was a test of that commitment — and of the foreign secretary he intends to be, especially in the absence of U.S. leadership. He failed dismally,” said Will Davies, head of Avaaz’s Sudan team.

Attendees included officials from Western nations, international institutions and neighboring countries, but no one from Sudan. Neither the Sudanese military nor the rival paramilitary it is fighting was invited.

Sudan plunged into war on April 15, 2023, after simmering tensions between the Sudanese military and a paramilitary organization known as the Rapid Support Forces. Fighting broke out in the capital, Khartoum, and spread across the country, killing at least 20,000 people, though the number is likely far higher.

Last month the Sudanese military regained control over Khartoum, a major symbolic victory in the war. But the RSF still controls most of the western region of Darfur and some other areas.

More than 300 civilians were killed in a burst of fighting in Darfur on Friday and Saturday, according to the U.N.

More than 3 million people have fled to neighboring countries including Chad and Egypt. Both sides in the war have been accused of committing war crimes.

The World Food Program says nearly 25 million people — half of Sudan’s population — face extreme hunger.

Aid agency Oxfam said the humanitarian catastrophe risks becoming a regional crisis, with fighting spilling into neighboring countries. It said that in South Sudan, itself wracked by recent war, the arrival of refugees has put more pressure on already scarce resources, “which is deepening local tensions and threatening the fragile peace.”

Lammy told delegates that “many have given up on Sudan,” concluding that continued conflict is inevitable. He said a lack of political will is the biggest obstacle to peace.

The U.K. and other Western countries have limited power to stop the fighting. More influence rests with regional powers such as Egypt, which has longstanding ties to the Sudanese army, and the United Arab Emirates, which has been accused of arming the RSF. The UAE has has denied that, despite evidence to the contrary.

Sudan’s government criticized conference organizers for excluding it from the meeting while inviting the UAE.

Lana Nusseibeh, the UAE foreign ministry’s assistant minister for political affairs, said both sides were committing atrocities, and urged combatants to “halt the deliberate targeting of humanitarian workers and the indiscriminate shelling of schools, markets, and hospitals.”

The U.S.was represented at the conference, though the Trump administration has cut almost all overseas aid programs. Britain also has cut its aid budget from 0.5% of gross domestic product to 0.3% to fund an increase in military spending. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said Sudan, along with Ukraine and Gaza, will remain a priority for British aid.

Associated Press writers Fatma Khaled in Cairo, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.

Bankole Adeoye, Political Affairs, Peace and Security Commissioner for the African Union, attends the London Sudan conference at Lancaster House in London, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (Isabel Infantes/Pool Photo via AP)

Redwan Hussein, Director General of the National Intelligence and Security Service of Ethiopia, attends the London Sudan conference at Lancaster House in London, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (Isabel Infantes/Pool Photo via AP)

Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, attends the London Sudan conference at Lancaster House in London, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (Isabel Infantes/Pool Photo via AP)

Bankole Adeoye, Political Affairs, Peace and Security Commissioner for the African Union, left, and Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy attend the London Sudan conference at Lancaster House in London, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (Isabel Infantes/Pool Photo via AP)

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock attends the London Sudan conference at Lancaster House in London, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (Isabel Infantes/Pool Photo via AP)

Bankole Adeoye, Political Affairs, Peace and Security Commissioner for the African Union, center, attends the London Sudan conference at Lancaster House in London, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (Isabel Infantes/Pool Photo via AP)

Bankole Adeoye, Political Affairs, Peace and Security Commissioner for the African Union, attends the London Sudan conference at Lancaster House in London, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (Isabel Infantes/Pool Photo via AP)

Bankole Adeoye, Political Affairs, Peace and Security Commissioner for the African Union, left, and Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy attend the London Sudan conference at Lancaster House in London, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (Isabel Infantes/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy delivers opening remarks during the London Sudan conference at Lancaster House in London, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (Isabel Infantes/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy delivers opening remarks during the London Sudan conference at Lancaster House in London, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (Isabel Infantes/Pool Photo via AP)

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — The discussions have taken place in an ornate Kremlin hall, on the polished marble of St. Peter’s Basilica and in a famously contentious session in the Oval Office of the White House.

What’s emerged so far from the Washington-led effort to end the war in Ukraine suggests a deal that seems likely to be favorable to Russia: President Donald Trump has sharply rebuked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, echoed Kremlin talking points, and indicated Kyiv would have to surrender territory and forego NATO membership. What’s more, he has engaged in a rapprochement with Moscow that was unthinkable months ago.

More recently, Trump has offered mixed signals — social media posts that perhaps Russian President Vladimir Putin is stringing him along — and a deal has yet to materialize.

While the optics so far have been in the Kremlin’s favor, no proposals that were put forth have been cemented.

And on Wednesday, Washington and Kyiv signed an agreement granting American access to Ukraine’s vast mineral resources that could enable continued military aid to the country under ongoing attacks from Russia.

Zelenskyy said Thursday the deal was the first result of his “truly historic” meeting with Trump at the Vatican before the funeral of Pope Francis.

One gain for the Kremlin is that Washington is talking again to Moscow after years of extremely strained ties following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine — and not just about the war, said Nikolay Petrov, senior research fellow with the New Eurasian Strategies Centre think tank.

Russian officials and state media from the very start of discussions with Trump’s officials sought to underscore that Ukraine was only one item on the vast agenda of the “two superpowers.” Trump and Putin talked in March about Ukraine but also the Middle East, stopping the proliferation of strategic weapons and even organizing hockey games between the countries.

Russia's main state TV channel reported that the meeting between Putin and Trump envoy Steve-Witkoff showed that Moscow and Washington were building “a new structure of the world” together.

In this sense, “Putin already got a part of what he sought” — the optics of Russia as a country that is on par with the U.S., Petrov said.

Trump has said Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula Moscow illegally annexed in 2014, “will stay with Russia,” and outlines of a peace proposal his team reportedly presented to Kyiv last month apparently included allowing Russia to keep control of other occupied Ukrainian territories. Trump, who had a contentious meeting with Zelenskyy in the Oval Office on Feb. 28, lashed out at him for publicly rejecting the idea of ceding land, and also said that Kyiv was unlikely to ever join NATO.

All of these reflect Moscow’s long-held positions, and Trump’s echoing of them suggested his administration’s vision was aligned with the Kremlin’s.

Trump also seemingly puts more pressure on Kyiv than Moscow in trying to reach a peace deal and appears eager to return to a more normal relationship with Russia and its “big business opportunities," said Sam Greene of King’s College London.

“Is there any part of this that doesn’t look like a win for Russia? No,” Greene adds.

But so far, all of this has remained nothing but rhetoric, with terms of a possible settlement still very much “in the air,” says Sergey Radchenko, a historian and a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Moreover, there are still demands by both Russia and Ukraine that would be hard to reconcile in any kind of peace settlement.

Ukraine refuses to cede any land and wants robust security guarantees against future aggression, possibly involving a contingent of peacekeepers -– something a handful of European nations have been discussing and Russia publicly rejects as a nonstarter.

Russia, in turn, demands that it holds onto the territory it has seized as well as no NATO membership for Ukraine. It also wants Kyiv to “demilitarize,” or significantly reduce its armed force.

Radchenko sees the latter as a major sticking point in peace talks, because a strong, viable army is important for Ukraine to defend itself.

“If there are restrictions on the kinds of weapons Ukraine can receive (from the West) or the size of the army, then it will be very difficult to get them to accept this sort of agreement,” he said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov seemingly raised the stakes further this week by saying that international recognition of regions annexed from Ukraine by Russia was “imperative” for a peace deal.

Achieving that remains unclear, given that dozens of countries have decried the annexations as violating international law.

Some analysts believe it is in Putin's interest to prolong the war and keep making gains on the battlefield.

Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have threatened to wash their hands of the peace effort if there is no progress soon.

Putin, in an apparent gesture of willingness to keep talking, announced this week a 72-hour ceasefire starting May 8 for Russia's Victory Day holiday that marks the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.

Zelenskyy dismissed the gesture as a further attempt by Putin at “manipulation” to string along the U.S., saying a ceasefire should begin immediately and last longer.

Greene noted that the Russian ruble and markets have been doing better recently over expectations of a peace deal and U.S. businesses and investors coming back, "and there may be a price to be paid” for pulling out the rug from under that.

The larger question is what happens on the battlefield if the Trump administration withdraws from the peace effort.

“When the Trump administration says they’ll walk away, we don’t know what that means. Does that mean they walk away from negotiations and keep supporting Ukraine?” Greene said.

Greene says that Ukraine probably doesn’t feel confident that the U.S. stepping back from the process means that Washington will keep supporting Kyiv, adding that Russia may not be sure of the Trump administration ending aid, either.

“I think it’s very difficult for the Kremlin to calculate the risks of dragging this out,” he said.

And U.S. Treasury Secretary Sctott Bessent said the mineral deal "signals clearly to Russia that the Trump administration is committed to a peace process centered on a free, sovereign, and prosperous Ukraine over the long term.”

A lot depends on whether Europe can step up and fill any gaps in U.S. aid.

If Trump walks away from the peace effort and still pursues normalizing relations with Russia, lifting sanctions, “this will amount to a major breakthrough” for Putin, but it's not a given, Radchenko says.

That would be an uphill battle for Trump as “there’s a lot of congressional sanctions that are predicated on the war in Ukraine,” Greene notes.

FILE - In this photo provided by Ukraine's 93rd Kholodnyi Yar Separate Mechanized Brigade press service, a soldier looks out of a shelter on the anti-drone firing position in Kostyantynivka, the site of the heavy battles with the Russian troops in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, April 24, 2025. (Iryna Rybakova/Ukraine's 93rd Mechanized Brigade via AP, File)

FILE - Russian soldiers guard a pier where two Ukrainian naval vessels are moored, in Sevastopol, on the Crimean Peninsula, March 5, 2014. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Vice President JD Vance, right, speaks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, as President Donald Trump listens, in the Oval Office at the White House, Feb. 28, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/ Mystyslav Chernov, File)

FILE - In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, right, and President Donald Trump, talk as they attend the funeral of Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, April 26, 2025.(Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP, File)

FILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff greet each other prior to their talks at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, April 25, 2025. (Kristina Kormilitsyna, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)

FILE - In this combination of file photos, President Donald Trump, left, and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, center, are seen at the Elysee Palace, Dec. 7, 2024 in Paris, and President Vladimir Putin, right, addresses a Technology Forum in Moscow, Feb. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard, left and center, Pavel Bednyakov, right, File)