BERLIN — Donors pledged about 1.5 billion euros ($1.8 billion) for Sudan at an international meeting held in Berlin Wednesday to mark three years of a war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions.

 

"This nightmare must end," said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, calling the anniversary "a tragic milestone in a conflict that has shattered a country of immense promise".

 

"The consequences are not confined to Sudan. They are destabilising the wider region," he told the gathering via a video message.

 

The conference host, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, said that "largely beyond the public eye, the world's greatest man-made humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in Sudan", adding that Germany would contribute 230 million euros in aid.

 

International donors pledged in total around 1.5 billion euros to tackle the crisis at the conference, according to a joint statement from several countries, as well as the African Union and EU, which organised the event.

 

As well as rallying donors, the conference aimed to help revive faltering peace talks, although the two sides fighting the war, the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, have been excluded.

 

The vast majority of Sudanese people have been plunged into poverty by the conflict, which has spawned numerous war crimes allegations.

 

More than 13 million people have been forcibly displaced by the conflict, according to the organisers of the Berlin gathering.

 

"People are exhausted," said Amgad Ahmed, 42, in Omdurman, Khartoum's twin city. "Three years of war have worn people down. We have lost work, savings and any sense of stability."

 

Lethal drone strikes

 

The Berlin meeting brought together governments, aid agencies and civil society groups and followed similar conferences hosted by London and Paris over the past two years.

 

The war between Sudan's army and the RSF has killed tens of thousands of people.

 

Nearly 700 civilians have been killed in drone strikes since January alone, with attacks escalating on both sides, particularly in the southern Kordofan region and Blue Nile State, according to the United Nations.

 

A semblance of normality, however, has taken root in the capital since the army retook control of Khartoum last year.

 

In parts of the city, reconstruction has already begun. Markets have reopened, traffic has returned to streets that were once largely empty, while national secondary school exams were held this week after nearly two years of widespread school closures.

 

According to the UN, around 1.8 million people have returned to Khartoum.

 

But danger still lurks among the soot-stained buildings, with authorities slowly working to clear tens of thousands of unexploded bombs left behind by the fighting.

 

Al Basheer Babker Al Basheer, 41, who visited Khartoum twice this year after three years away, said the city would need years to recover.

 

"I was happy to come back," he told AFP. "But when I went into the city centre, it was heartbreaking.

 

"The road to the university where I studied is no longer the same. The walls are black. They are not the same places we used to go to."