US urges countries supplying arms to Sudan’s warring parties to stop doing so

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UNITED NATIONS – The United States on Monday implored all countries that supply weapons to Sudan’s warring parties to stop arms sales, warning that the history in the vast western region of Darfur, where there was a genocide 20 years ago, “ It is repeating itself.”

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters after a closed-door emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council that El Fasher, Darfur’s only capital not in the hands of paramilitary forces, is “on the verge of a massacre on a large scale.

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He urged all countries to raise the threat that “a crisis of epic proportions is brewing.” Britain’s deputy ambassador, James Kariuki, echoed his call, saying: “The last thing Sudan needs is further escalation on top of this year-long conflict.”

Thomas-Greenfield said there are “credible reports” that the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and their allied militias have devastated many villages west of El Fasher and are planning “an imminent attack on El Fasher.”

“An attack on El Fasher would be a disaster on top of a disaster,” Thomas-Greenfield warned, saying it would put at risk the two million people who live in El Fasher and the 500,000 Sudanese who have sought refuge there.

Thomas-Greenfield urged paramilitary forces, known as RSF, to end their siege of El Fasher “and renounce any attack on the city.”

He urged RSF and rival government forces to take urgent steps to reduce violence and engage in direct negotiations, protect civilians and allow humanitarian access, especially to the 5 million Sudanese “on the brink of famine” and 10 million more in desperate situation. need for help.

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Sudan descended into chaos in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its army, led by General Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the RSF paramilitary commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo erupted in street battles in the capital, Khartoum. The fighting has spread to other parts of the country, especially urban areas and the Darfur region.

U.N. political chief Rosemary DiCarlo told the council April 19 that the year-long war has been fueled by weapons from foreign supporters who continue to flout U.N. sanctions intended to help end the conflict. “This is illegal, it is immoral and it must stop,” she said.

He did not name any of the foreign supporters.

But Burhan, who led the military takeover of Sudan in 2021, is a close ally of neighboring Egypt and its president, former army chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. In February, Sudan’s foreign minister held talks in Tehran with his Iranian counterpart amid unconfirmed reports of drone purchases for government forces.

Dagalo, the leader of the RSF, would have received support from the Russian mercenary group Wagner. UN experts said in a recent report that the RSF has also received support from allied Arab communities and new military supply lines running through Chad, Libya and South Sudan.

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Thomas-Greenfield said Monday that all regional powers must stop providing weapons to warring parties as required by the U.N. arms embargo, and told reporters that the United States will continue to pressure them.

In response to a question, he said one of the countries the United States has engaged with is the United Arab Emirates, which has repeatedly denied providing weapons to Sudan.

The UN’s DiCarlo painted a dire picture of the war’s impact: more than 14,000 dead, tens of thousands injured, an imminent famine with 25 million people in need of life-saving assistance and more than 8.6 million forced to flee. their homes.

During the war, the Arab-dominated RSF has carried out brutal attacks in Darfur against ethnic African civilians, especially the Masalit ethnic group, and has taken control of most of the vast region, with El Fasher as its new aim.

Two decades ago, Darfur became synonymous with genocide and war crimes, particularly committed by the notorious Arab Janjaweed militias, against populations identifying as Central or East African. Up to 300,000 people died and 2.7 million were driven from their homes.

That legacy appears to have returned, and International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan said in January that there is reason to believe both sides could be committing war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide in Darfur.

The RSF was formed from Janjaweed fighters by former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, who ruled the country for three decades before being overthrown during a popular uprising in 2019. He is wanted by the ICC on charges of genocide and other crimes during the conflict in Darfur in the 2000s.

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