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The United Nations Security Council has demanded that Sudanese paramilitary forces end their eight-week siege of el-Fasher, a city in Darfur where the fighting has raised fears of a potential genocide.
For over a year, Sudan’s army has been engaged in a civil war against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), resulting in thousands of deaths and millions of displaced people.
El-Fasher is the last significant urban center in Darfur still controlled by Sudan’s army.
The Security Council has called for “an immediate halt to the fighting” and the withdrawal of all troops from the city.
A British-drafted resolution was adopted by the 15-member council on Thursday, with 14 votes in favor and Russia abstaining.
The council expressed “grave concern” about the escalating violence and credible reports of the RSF committing “ethnically motivated violence” in el-Fasher.
In a statement, the council urged the rival forces to “seek an immediate cessation of hostilities, leading to a sustainable resolution to the conflict, through dialogue.”
The resolution urged all parties to permit civilians wishing to leave el-Fasher to do so and to remove barriers to humanitarian access.
Britain’s UN envoy, Barbara Woodward, told the council that “an attack on the city would be catastrophic for the 1.5 million people sheltering in the city.
“This council has sent a strong signal to the parties to the conflict today. This brutal and unjust conflict needs to end.”
Louis Charbonneau of Human Rights Watch stated that the resolution “puts the Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces on notice that the world is watching.”
The Security Council also called on member states to “refrain from external interference” and insisted on adherence to the arms embargo on Sudan.
El-Fasher’s last operational hospital was forced to shut down after it was attacked.
According to the UN, over 130,000 residents fled the city between April and May due to ongoing fighting.
UN experts warn that the Darfur region is at increasing risk of genocide, as global attention is diverted to conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.
Rights groups in Darfur have accused the RSF of employing rape as a weapon of war and targeting darker-skinned Masalit people and other non-Arab groups in a campaign of ethnic cleansing.
The RSF, however, claims it is not involved in what it describes as a “tribal conflict” in Darfur.
Multiple rounds of peace talks have failed to end the conflict, which began when the two generals leading the army and RSF had a falling out.
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