Sudan civil war: Outsiders are “fueling the fire” says UN chief
The Sudan civil war is intensifying with outside powers “fueling the fire” of “nightmares”, according to the United Nations chief on October 28th.
APNews reported that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the 18-month conflict faces the serious possibility of “igniting regional instability from the Sahel to the Horn of Africa to the Red Sea.”
In a grim statement to the UN Security Council, Guterres said the Sudanese people are living through numerous “nightmares” from “unspeakable atrocities” to “catastrophic food insecurity”.
He evidenced reports of widespread rapes, mass ethnic violence, fast-spreading diseases and 750,000 people facing famine conditions in North Darfur displacement sites.
In recent days, he said, villages in east-central Gezira province had been subject to “shocking reports of mass killings and sexual violence”.
The UN and a doctors’ group said paramilitary fighters ran riot in the region in a multi-day attack that killed more than 120 people in just one of the towns.
In April 2023 Sudan was plunged into civil war when long-running tensions between its military and paramilitary leaders broke out in the capital Khartoum.
So far the escalating violence has claimed the lives of more than 24,000 people and has displaced another 11 million, creating the world’s worst displacement crisis.
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Guterres urged both sides to immediately agree to a cessation of hostilities to ensure the protection of civilians for which, he said, they bear primary responsibility.
He emphasised how pivotal it was that vital humanitarian aid be allowed to flow urgently to those in need.
Reports abound of the Sudanese Armed Forces dropping apparently indiscriminate airstrikes in populated areas, according to Guterres.
The secretary-general said he was also “horrified” by evidence of the opposing Rapid Support Forces (RSF) targeting civilians in North Darfur’s capital El-Fasher and surrounding areas, including displacement sites where famine has been confirmed.
He called for the accountability of those who violate international humanitarian law.
His statement comes after the United States unveiled $424 million in new aid for Sudanese citizens displaced by war and facing severe hunger on September 25th.
According to Maghrebi.org, this aid package includes $175 million dedicated to purchasing surplus food from American farmers, which will be distributed to those in Sudan and surrounding regions.
During the announcement at a high-level meeting of UN members, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield renewed calls for unhindered access to deliver aid to El-Fasher which is under siege by the RSF.
She said: “We must compel the warring parties to accept humanitarian pauses in El-Fasher, Khartoum and other highly vulnerable areas, eliminate barriers to humanitarian access along all routes, and put down their weapons and come to the negotiating table.”
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The Sudan conflict began four years after a pro-democracy uprising forced the military’s ousting of Sudan’s 25 year ruler, dictator Omar al-Bashir.
What followed was a short-lived transition to democracy before a military coup in 2021 put Abdel Fattah al-Burhan in the hot seat as head of state.
The ensuing civil war between al-Burhan and his deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, head of the RSF, has been marked by atrocities such as mass rape and ethnicity-motivated killings.
The United Nations and international rights groups say these acts amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, particularly in the western region of Darfur.
The area has been facing a bitter onslaught by the RSF, which was born out of the Janjaweed. the notorious Arab militia that wreaked havoc in Dafur two decades ago.
The Janjaweed fought against local populations that identified as Central or East African, killing nearly 300,000 people and driving another 2.7 million from their homes
That legacy appears to have returned, with the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, saying in January there are grounds to believe both sides may be committing war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide in Darfur.
APNews and Maghrebi.org
