UNITED NATiONS — The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Friday to briefly extend the arms embargo on Sudan’s western Darfur region while negotiations continue on a contentious U.S. proposal to expand the embargo throughout the country to pressure the warring parties to end their more than three-year conflict.
The uphill struggle the United States and its allies face during the monthlong extension was evident in speeches after the vote. Russia, which holds veto power in the council and backs the Sudanese government in its fight against paramilitary forces, vowed to prevent any expansion of the arms embargo.
Moscow made its “red lines” clear during closed negotiations, Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador Anna Evstigneeva said. “We will not allow even a hint of broadening the restrictions by the council on Sudan.”
The Security Council imposed an arms embargo on the vast Darfur region after violence erupted in 2003 when rebels took up arms against the authoritarian government in Khartoum, then led by Omar al-Bashir. The government responded with air attacks and a ground offensive by local nomadic Arab militias known as the Janjaweed, who are accused of mass killings and rapes. Up to 300,000 people died in the conflict and 2.7 million fled their homes.
At a council meeting on Aug. 24, the United States urged a countrywide arms embargo to push the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces to negotiate an end to fighting that began in April 2023. The current war has killed at least 59,000 people, though aid groups warn the number could be much higher. It has displaced some 13 million people and pushed parts of the country into famine, creating one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
Evstigneeva asked why the U.S. was trying to expand the arms embargo now when government forces "have a definite advantage on the ground," and not in 2023 when the RSF was threatening the capital, Khartoum, and other cities.
It is the government that guarantees the country’s unity and institutions, and protects its civilians, she said.
China’s deputy U.N. ambassador Sun Lei warned that extending the embargo would worsen the humanitarian situation and might lead to the fragmentation of Sudan, which would threaten regional stability.
Sudan’s U.N. Ambassador Al-Harith Mohamed told the council that a total arms embargo goes against the U.N. Charter’s guarantee that countries have the right to self-defense and their armed forces have the right to produce and acquire weapons to protect their sovereignty.
But U.S. deputy ambassador Jeffrey Bartos said another long-term extension of the Darfur embargo “is not an option,” calling it outdated and “insufficient to address the realities of the war today.” The council also needs to sanction people who commit “horrific actions,” including sexual violence, kidnapping for ransom and attacks on humanitarian personnel, he said.
“Inaction means more suffering and death,” Bartos warned. “That is unacceptable, and we refuse to rubber stamp another year of maintaining the status quo.”
He reiterated the U.S. call for an end to the flow of arms to the belligerents from external parties. And he decried the attacks on aid convoys, pointing to last week's loss of over 50 metric tons of aid in an aerial attack on clearly identified World Food Program trucks in South Kordofan.
WFP acting director Carl Skau said in an interview with The Associated Press during his recent visit to Sudan that a lack of funding has forced the agency to reduce the number of people it assists from about 5 million at the beginning of the year to 3.5 million. "We risk now having to cut even further," he warned.
“The world keeps sending weapons when they should be sending food and shelter, and when the focus and the energy and effort should really be on trying to bring an end to this conflict,” Skau said.
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Fay Abuelgasim contributed to this report from Cairo
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