Allies fuel Sudan's war with weapons, 'enabling slaughter' — UN official

The UN political chief accused allies of Sudan’s warring military and paramilitary forces of “enabling the slaughter” that has killed more than 24,000 people and created the world’s worst displacement crisis.

“This is unconscionable,” Rosemary DiCarlo told the UN Security Council. “It is illegal, and it must end.”

She didn’t name the countries funding and providing weapons to Sudan’s military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, but she said they have a responsibility to press both sides to work for a negotiated settlement of the war.

Sudan plunged into conflict in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary leaders broke out in the capital, Khartoum, and spread to other regions, including western Darfur, which was wracked by bloodshed and atrocities in 2003. The UN recently warned that the country has been pushed to the brink of famine.

Last month, the RSF rampaged through the province of Gezira, attacking towns and villages, killing dozens of people and raping women and girls, according to the UN and local groups.

DiCarlo told the council that nongovernmental organizations say those attacks have been marked by “some of the most extreme violence in the last 18 months.”

She strongly condemned the RSF’s continuing attacks against civilians and said the UN is also “appalled by the attacks against civilians perpetrated by forces affiliated with the Sudanese Armed Forces in the Khartoum area.”

DiCarlo said it is long past time for the rival forces to come to the negotiating table, but she said both sides seem convinced they can win on the battlefield, and this is being fueled by outside support and weapons.

“As the end of the rainy season approaches, the parties continue to escalate their military operations, recruit new fighters and intensify their attacks,” she said. “This is possible thanks to considerable external support, including a steady flow of weapons into the country.”