On 18 November, Sudan’s UN representative denounced a UK-led UN Security Council resolution on ‘increasing civilian protection’ and ‘humanitarian aid’ in the war-torn country, arguing it disregarded Sudanese sovereignty, did not oppose United Arab Emirates support for the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) accused of massacres and r*pes, and that it didn’t designate the RSF a terrorist group.
While the UK, US, and France condemned Russia’s veto that squashed the resolution, Russia’s representative, Dmitry Polyanskiy (@Dpol_un on X), accused the UK of using the resolution to meddle in Sudan’s affairs under the guise of humanitarian concerns. Russia also claimed double standards were in play, denouncing the West’s criticism of Sudan while it supports Israel’s actions in Palestine.
The RSF and the Sudanese military plunged the country into a proxy war on 15 April 2023, when they clashed over incorporating the paramilitary group into the military. Since then, the war had already k*lled more than 150,000 people by May, according to the US envoy for Sudan. It has sparked one of the world’s biggest displacement crises, with 11 million people internally displaced and more than 3 million having fled the country. UN experts warn the world’s worst hunger crisis looms, with 97 per cent of Sudanese internally displaced people facing ‘severe levels of hunger.’
Sudanese activists and human rights monitoring groups have accused both sides of war crimes, but the RSF has stood out for alleged g*nocide against non-Arab ethnic populations, use of s*xual violence as a weapon, and ransom kidnappings, to name a few.
SOURCES
News
https://press.un.org/en/2024/sc15901.doc.htm
Russian POV
https://t.me/dpol_un/1228
Spark for war
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/5/31/fighting-in-sudan-a-timeline-of-key-events
Number of killed
https://www.dw.com/en/us-sudan-envoy-we-hear-horrific-stories/video-70337032
Among world’s biggest displacement crises
https://sudan.iom.int/sites/g/files/tmzbdl1606/files/documents/2024-11/sudan-crisis-regional-response-situation-update-62-13-november-2024_0.pdf
Among world’s biggest hunger crises
https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/10/sudan-faces-one-worst-famines-decades-warn-un-experts
RSF genocide
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sudan-civil-war-hrw-rsf-genocide-geneina-threat-ethnic-cleansing-fasher
RSF sexual violence
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/29/africa/sudan-sexual-violence-women-intl/index.html
RSF kidnappings
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/02/23/sudan-rsf-kidnapping-ransom-slaves
Sudan’s UN representative
https://media.un.org/avlibrary/en/asset/d330/d3309950