Africa
Sudan at the Security Council: UK urges tougher sanctions and a truce a year after El Fasher fell
At the Security Council on 16 October, the UK called for a stronger Sudan sanctions regime and a humanitarian truce, while UN News cited 20 million people facing acute hunger.
The UN Security Council met on 16 October to discuss Sudan, a year after the fall of El Fasher to the Rapid Support Forces. According to the UN News account of the session, 20 million people in Sudan face acute hunger, about 200,000 of them at catastrophe levels, and the risk of famine is rising in parts of Darfur and Greater Kordofan.
UN News also reported that more than 700,000 displaced people in Tawila are short of food, water and healthcare, and that a drone strike near the Ethiopian border killed 41 displaced people on 10 October. It noted that the Council’s arms embargo remains confined to Darfur, while the sanctions regime was extended to 11 December.
The UK position
The United Kingdom’s statement, published by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, said the UN Fact-Finding Mission had documented “systematic starvation, torture, killings, rape, and deliberate ethnic targeting” after El Fasher fell. London said it supports efforts to strengthen the Security Council’s Sudan sanctions regime so that it reflects “how this war is being fought today”, and argued that advancing drone capabilities are “procured, financed, transferred, and sustained through networks outside of Sudan”.
The UK also encouraged the swift transmission and publication of the final report of the 1591 panel of experts, and called on the parties to agree a humanitarian truce, a permanent ceasefire and an inclusive, civilian-led political process. It welcomed the work of the Quad and the Quintet and said it looks forward to further progress at consultations in Geneva next week. On a proposed national dialogue, it said any credible process must be inclusive and Sudanese-led.
Background
Earlier this week the IPC issued a new warning on the same regions, covered in IPC warns of growing famine risk in Darfur and Kordofan as war and drought converge in Sudan. The scope of the Council measures was examined in UN extends Darfur arms embargo by two months as Russia and China oppose a Sudan-wide ban.
Positions of other Council members and of the warring parties were not available in the sources read for this article.
