The United Nations on Tuesday renewed its appeal for an immediate ceasefire in Sudan, with officials warning that civilians are paying a heavy price for the fighting as outside parties fuel the conflict by supplying weapons. They say the unrelenting violence in Sudan, which has raged for more than 18 months, is poised to intensify, worsening already alarming levels of human rights violations, hunger and displacement.
"Sudan is trapped in a nightmare," Rosemary DiCarlo, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, told a high-level meeting of the UN Security Council on Tuesday.
Over the past two weeks, the situation in the country has been marked by some of the most extreme violence since the start of the conflict, DiCarlo said, describing a wave of attacks by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in eastern Al Jazirah State, in which large numbers of civilians have been killed and even more have lost their homes and been forced to flee.
Fighting also continues in El Fasher, Khartoum and other areas, where civilians are being subjected to appalling suffering.
“We are receiving reports of horrific violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, including sexual violence committed predominantly against women and girls,” she said, condemning the continued attacks by the RSF against civilians and the indiscriminate aerial bombardments by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in populated areas, including in and around Khartoum.
“Let me stress that both warring parties bear responsibility for this violence,” she said, underlining the need for an immediate ceasefire and a negotiated political solution.
DiCarlo said that in the absence of a nationwide ceasefire, local ceasefires could give civilians some respite and create openings for dialogue on a broader agreement.
She told the high-level meeting of the Security Council that the rival leaders of the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces appear to be convinced that they can each win on the battlefield and have escalated their attacks.
“As the end of the rainy season approaches, the parties continue to escalate their military operations, recruit new fighters and intensify their attacks. This is possible thanks to considerable external support, including a steady flow of weapons into the country,” she said.
“To put it bluntly, certain purported allies of the parties are enabling the slaughter in Sudan. This is unconscionable, it is illegal, and it must end.”
While Egypt and Russia are reportedly among the countries providing arms and equipment to the SAF, Sudanese government officials have publicly accused the United Arab Emirates (UAE) of funneling weapons to the RSF militia through neighboring Chad.
The UAE vehemently denies the accusation, but a UN panel of experts said earlier this year that there was substance to media reports that cargo planes from the UAE capital had landed in eastern Chad with arms, ammunition, and medical equipment destined for the paramilitary group.
Sudan's ambassador stood by the allegation on Tuesday, telling the Council that RSF was using humanitarian convoys to smuggle both weapons and foreign mercenaries through the Adre border crossing with Chad. Sudan's permit for this crossing is about to expire, and humanitarians - and most Council members - want it to remain open.
“We commend the Sudanese authorities for opening the Adre border crossing in mid-August,” US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said.
“This single route allowed aid organizations to bring enough food, health and nutrition supplies to serve more than 1.9 million people. Now, Sudanese authorities must keep Adre border crossing open indefinitely. Millions of lives depend on it.”
“There are no signs of respite” in the brutal violence faced by the Sudanese people, said Ramesh Rajasingham, Director of Coordination for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), warning of troubling projections that suggest the conflict is poised to escalate yet further.
Citing recent reports of mass killings and horrific sexual violence in Al-Jazirah State — “a sickening hallmark of this conflict”, he said that women and girls continue to be at the center of horrendous suffering, with displacement and hunger putting them at increased risk of gender-based violence and sexual violence and abuse.
“Civilians continue to flee for their lives both within Sudan and across its borders, in what is now the world’s largest displacement crisis,” he added.
More than 11.6 million people have been displaced - including 8.3 million internally and 3.1 million in neighboring countries since the war began in April 2023. Nearly a third of Sudan's 51 million people have now been forced to flee due to conflict, making it the world's largest displacement crisis..
As of November 2024, more than 11.3 million women, men and children are internally displaced, including 2.8 million displaced before April 2023, making Sudan also the largest internal displacement crisis in the world.
The total number of Sudanese refugees is now estimated at over 3.6 million, including at least 500,000 Sudanese who fled to neighboring countries before the war escalated. In total, some 14.9 million people have been displaced by conflict across Sudan.
The war has also unleashed a severe hunger crisis, Rajasingham said, citing an Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis that found more than 750,000 people face the highest levels of food insecurity and starvation. Half of Sudan's population, an estimated 25 million people, are experiencing crisis-level food insecurity or worse, according to the UN.
In August, famine was confirmed in the northern part of Sudan's Darfur region, marking only the third time a formal famine has been declared since the creation of the international famine monitoring system 20 years ago. Tens of thousands of others are likely facing similar conditions in other famine-prone areas. The situation is particularly critical for people trapped in conflict-affected areas.
“I just cannot put strongly enough how serious this situation is,” Rajasingham stressed, warning of the threats of hunger, malnutrition and disease.
In this context, he stressed the need for all available routes, including the Adre crossing, to remain open for humanitarian supplies and personnel, and for inter-agency hubs to be re-established in key areas.
“In North Darfur, fighting in and around El Fasher continues to intensify and block the movement of aid supplies into the area,” he said
El Fasher is the capital of North Darfur and has been the epicenter of a seven-month battle between the RSF, which is poised to capture the city, and the SAF, which is trying to hold it. More than 1.5 million civilians in El Fasher, many of them displaced from other parts of Sudan, are caught in the crossfire.
Humanitarian experts have confirmed famine conditions in parts of El Fasher, including the Zamzam camp for displaced people, which houses more than 400,000 people. Rajasingham said about one-third of the children in the camp are malnourished, including 10 percent who are severely malnourished.
Since October 20, more than 135,000 civilians have been displaced from eastern Al Jazira State following a wave of RSF attacks on villages there that reportedly killed more than 160 civilians. Women and girls have been raped, markets looted, and homes and farms burned to the ground.
“The international community must take what’s happening in Sudan seriously and must take urgent action to address it,” Rajasingham said of the spreading conflict.
On Friday, the UN Security Council's Sudan Sanctions Committee designated RSF commanders Abdel Rahman Juma Barkalla and Osman Mohamed Hamid Mohamed for sanctions for their roles in the violence in Darfur. The United States said on Tuesday that it was adding Barkalla to its own sanctions list, noting that it had previously designated Hamid in May 2024.
The UN Security Council is working on a draft resolution that focuses on protecting civilians by implementing commitments made by both parties last year in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and supporting mediation that would lead to a cease-fire. No date has been announced for a vote.
On Sunday, the prominent international human rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) called for the deployment of a protection force in Sudan, and urged the Security Council to act, as its “minimal action” was clearly failing to protect civilians. Independent UN human rights experts have also called for the urgent deployment of an "independent and impartial force" with a mandate to protect civilians.
While Sudan faces the world's largest humanitarian crisis, the emergency receives little media attention and the humanitarian response is woefully underfunded. The Sudan Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) for 2024 calls for US$2.7 billion to reach 14.7 million people by the end of this year. As of today, the HRP is only 57 percent funded.
This year's Sudan Regional Refugee Response Plan (RRP) requires US$1.5 billion to support 3.3 million refugees, returnees, and host communities in seven countries bordering Sudan. The RRP is currently only 29 percent funded.
Despite humanitarian access constraints and lack of funding, aid agencies continue to expand their response across the country. As of November, they have reached some 12.6 million people with at least one form of humanitarian assistance.
Some information for this report provided by VOA.
Further information
Full text: UN strongly condemns continued attacks against civilians in Sudan, calls on warring parties for immediate ceasefire, UN Under-Secretary-General Rosemary A. DiCarlo's remarks to the Security Council briefing on the Sudan and South Sudan, delivered November 12, 2024
https://dppa.un.org/en/mtg-sc-9780-usg-dicarlo-sudan-12-nov-2024
Full text: OCHA urges Security Council to act as Sudan faces "unimaginable suffering" amid escalating violence, briefing to the Security Council on the humanitarian situation in Sudan by Ramesh Rajasingham, Director, Coordination Division, OCHA, delivered November 12, 2024
https://www.unocha.org/news/ocha-urges-security-council-act-sudan-faces-unimaginable-suffering-amid-escalating-violence