UNITED NATIONS — The United States is urging beefed-up U.N. sanctions against the warring parties in Sudan to build pressure on them to negotiate an end to the fighting that has killed at least 59,000 people , displaced some 13 million and pushed many parts of the African nation into famine .
U.N.-backed human rights investigators two years ago called for the expansion of an arms embargo on Sudan’s long-restive western Darfur region — scene of mass atrocities between 2003 and 2005 — to cover the entire country. The conflict exploded from a power struggle that emerged following Sudan’s transition to democracy after an uprising forced the military ouster of longtime autocratic President Omar al-Bashir in April 2019.
President Donald Trump’s senior adviser for Arab and African affairs, Massad Boulos, told the U.N. He said the Security Council has the tools to curtail the provision of “a tremendous and increasing amount of military support to both warring parties” from “numerous external actors. Boulos said a proposed U.S. resolution before the U.N. It also would apply “to all parties operating in the territory” and reaffirm that drones and related technologies are part of the arms embargo. Rights groups have said the use of unmanned aircraft has become increasingly common in the northeast African nation’s war . Burhan said Monday that new sanctions would not deter his troops from carrying on with their war until all RSF-controlled areas are captured, according to the army-controlled SUNA news agency.
Boulos did not name any countries providing that support. Egypt has been a vocal supporter of Sudan’s military, while the United Arab Emirates is accused by U.N. experts and human rights groups of providing arms to the RSF, which it has repeatedly denied. Security Council would expand the arms embargo throughout Sudan. Experts say Sudan’s army and the RSF are competing to obtain new drone models.
Security Council on Monday that financial, military and political support given to either the government forces or the rival paramilitary group, Rapid Support Forces, remains a driver of the conflict, now in its fourth year .
