UN: Decisive action needed to stop fighting in Sudan

2024-10-28 22:53:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for "decisive action" on Monday to end Sudan's 18-month-old civil war, where millions face starvation and have been displaced from their homes.

"We have repeatedly called on both sides to end the fighting and come to the negotiating table," he told a UN Security Council meeting on Sudan. "But instead of reducing tensions, they are escalating military action."

The warring parties are led by rival generals, Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) chief Abdel-Fattah al Burhan and Rapid Support Force (RSF) chief Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. Former allies turned rivals have torn the country apart in a power struggle.

The UN chief said "suffering is increasing by the day" as he called for a cessation of hostilities, protection of civilians, increased humanitarian aid and an immediate end to the flow of arms and ammunition to both sides.

He also expressed deep concern about the situation in North Darfur's capital, El Fasher, where fighting has escalated since mid-April between the SAF, which is trying to hold the city, and the RSF, which is poised to take it. El Fasher is the only capital in the Darfur region that has not yet fallen to the paramilitary group.

"I am appalled by the ongoing attacks by the Rapid Support Force against civilians in El Fasher and surrounding areas, which include displacement sites where famine conditions have been confirmed," Guterres said.

The United Nations and others fear that an all-out battle for El Fasher, home to an estimated 1.5 million civilians, could trigger genocide-like atrocities committed by Janjaweed Arab fighters against the Zaghawa, Masalit, Fur and other ethnic non-Arabs. groups in Darfur in the early 2000s. Janjaweed fighters make up elements of today's RSF.

From 20 to 25 October, the RSF carried out major attacks on villages throughout the eastern state of Al Jazriah. The paramilitaries reportedly killed more than 120 civilians, indiscriminately shooting and raping women and girls, looting markets and homes, and burning farms. The United Nations says around 47,000 people have fled the area over the past week.

"And I am also appalled by reports of attacks against civilians carried out by forces affiliated with the Sudanese Armed Forces in Khartoum, and by the continued massive civilian casualties due to seemingly indiscriminate airstrikes in populated areas," it added. Guterres, saying that all perpetrators of serious crimes must be held accountable.

In response to calls from some quarters for an impartial force to protect civilians on the ground, Guterres said the conditions do not currently exist for a UN peacekeeping force to be successfully deployed./VOA