US Envoy in Chad to Spotlight Sudan Atrocities

FILE PHOTO: Sudanese women, who fled the conflict in Murnei in Sudan's Darfur region, wait beside their belongings to be registered by UNHCR upon crossing the border between Sudan and Chad, in Adre, Chad July 26, 2023. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra
FILE PHOTO: Sudanese women, who fled the conflict in Murnei in Sudan's Darfur region, wait beside their belongings to be registered by UNHCR upon crossing the border between Sudan and Chad, in Adre, Chad July 26, 2023. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra
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US Envoy in Chad to Spotlight Sudan Atrocities

FILE PHOTO: Sudanese women, who fled the conflict in Murnei in Sudan's Darfur region, wait beside their belongings to be registered by UNHCR upon crossing the border between Sudan and Chad, in Adre, Chad July 26, 2023. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra
FILE PHOTO: Sudanese women, who fled the conflict in Murnei in Sudan's Darfur region, wait beside their belongings to be registered by UNHCR upon crossing the border between Sudan and Chad, in Adre, Chad July 26, 2023. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra

The United States envoy to the United Nations arrived in Chad on Wednesday to meet Sudanese refugees who have fled ethnic and sexual violence in Darfur, which she described as "reminiscent" of atrocities 20 years ago that Washington declared a genocide.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who is a member of President Joe Biden's cabinet, is due to visit Chad's border with Darfur in western Sudan to highlight the worsening conflict and growing humanitarian crisis.

War broke out in Sudan on April 15 - four years after former President Omar al-Bashir was ousted by a popular uprising. Tensions between the army (SAF) and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which jointly staged a coup in 2021, erupted into fighting over a plan to transition to civilian rule.

"We certainly have reached a level of serious atrocities being committed and it is very reminiscent of what we saw happening in 2004 that led to the genocide determination," said Thomas-Greenfield before arriving in Chad.

"We're hearing from women who are being brutally gang raped over and over again, villages being raided, there are aerial photos showing mass graves. Signs are there," she said.

In the early 2000s the UN estimates some 300,000 people were killed in Darfur when "Janjaweed" militias - from which the RSF formed - helped the army crush a rebellion by mainly non-Arab groups. Sudanese leaders are wanted by the International Criminal Court for genocide and crimes against humanity.

"Once again, Darfur is descending into an abyss without mercy or hope," UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said in a statement. "Civilians have been trapped, targeted, raped and murdered. It is unlawful and it is outrageous."

Thomas-Greenfield first visited Chad's border with Darfur in 2004 as a senior State Department official - the same year Washington described the violence there as a genocide.

"I went before the genocide was declared, but saw all of the evidence that a genocide was happening," she said. "I had witnessed that before, having gone into the refugee camps in Goma (Democratic Republic of Congo) after Rwanda and seeing the tortured look on people's faces, the terror on their faces."

A genocide was committed in Rwanda in 1994 when ruling Hutu majority extremists killed more than 800,000 minority Tutsis and Hutu moderates in 100 days.

The United Nations says that since the start of the Sudan war in April some 380,000 refugees - mostly women and children - have fled to Chad. Hundreds of thousands more have escaped to Central African Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Sudan.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has appealed for $1 billion to help provide aid and protection to more than 1.8 million people who are expected to flee Sudan this year. Nearly 7.1 million people are displaced inside the country, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Griffiths said that those inside Sudan who had managed to escape the violence now face starvation.

"More than 60 percent of people in West Darfur are highly food insecure, as is over half the population in East and South Darfur," Griffiths said. "We're in a race against the clock."

In recent weeks the United Nations has been able to deliver aid into West Darfur from Chad and has aid trucks ready to reach other parts of the region, but said "unrelenting clashes" were stopping them from reaching the people in need.

"Darfur's people are caught in a state of near total deprivation. Our message is urgent: Stop the fighting and let us through," Griffiths said.

In Sudan the UN says half the country's 49 million people need help and has appealed for $2.6 billion - so far, it has secured only 26% of this amount. Washington is the top donor, followed by the European Commission, Germany and Canada.

The fighting throughout Sudan has caused a "humanitarian catastrophe," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council last week in a report seen by Reuters.

"The growing ethnic mobilization and the increase in ethnically motivated attacks could spark a full blown civil war, with potentially an even more devastating impact on the Sudanese people, the region and beyond," Guterres wrote.



Barrack Says Hezbollah Involvement in Iran-Israel War Would Be 'Very Bad Decision'

A handout photo released by the Lebanese Presidency press office on June 19, 2025 shows Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun (R) welcoming US negotiator Thomas Barrack at the presidential palace of Baabda east of Beirut. (Photo by Lebanese Presidency / AFP)
A handout photo released by the Lebanese Presidency press office on June 19, 2025 shows Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun (R) welcoming US negotiator Thomas Barrack at the presidential palace of Baabda east of Beirut. (Photo by Lebanese Presidency / AFP)
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Barrack Says Hezbollah Involvement in Iran-Israel War Would Be 'Very Bad Decision'

A handout photo released by the Lebanese Presidency press office on June 19, 2025 shows Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun (R) welcoming US negotiator Thomas Barrack at the presidential palace of Baabda east of Beirut. (Photo by Lebanese Presidency / AFP)
A handout photo released by the Lebanese Presidency press office on June 19, 2025 shows Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun (R) welcoming US negotiator Thomas Barrack at the presidential palace of Baabda east of Beirut. (Photo by Lebanese Presidency / AFP)

The US special envoy for Syria Tom Barrack on Thursday warned Hezbollah against getting involved in the war between its main backer Iran and Israel.

"I can say on behalf of President (Donald) Trump... that would be a very, very, very bad decision," Barrack said, responding to a question on what the US position would be on any involvement by Hezbollah in the war.

Barrack met with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun at Baabda Palace and Speaker Nabih Berri in Ain el-Tineh.

Hezbollah has condemned Israel's strikes on Iran and expressed full solidarity with its leadership.

Hezbollah on Thursday expressed support for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei following threats by Israeli leaders that he could be killed.

In a statement, Hezbollah said that “threats to assassinate (Khamenei) are foolish and reckless, and will have disastrous consequences.”

But the group has stopped short of making explicit threats to intervene.

Israel's defense minister said Thursday that Khamenei "can no longer be allowed to exist" after an Israeli hospital was hit during an Iranian missile attack.

"Khamenei openly declares that he wants Israel destroyed -- he personally gives the order to fire on hospitals. He considers the destruction of the state of Israel to be a goal," Israel Katz told journalists in Holon near Tel Aviv. "Such a man can no longer be allowed to exist."

Killing Khamenei would "end the conflict" between Israel and Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said.