UN Chief Proposes Benchmarks for Sudan to End Sanctions

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addresses the media during a joint press conference with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas after a meeting in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Dec. 17, 2020. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn, pool)
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addresses the media during a joint press conference with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas after a meeting in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Dec. 17, 2020. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn, pool)
TT
20

UN Chief Proposes Benchmarks for Sudan to End Sanctions

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addresses the media during a joint press conference with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas after a meeting in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Dec. 17, 2020. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn, pool)
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addresses the media during a joint press conference with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas after a meeting in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Dec. 17, 2020. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn, pool)

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has proposed a series of benchmarks for Sudan’s transitional government to meet that could lead the UN Security Council to lift the arms embargo and other sanctions it imposed after the conflict in Darfur began in 2003.

In a 16-page report to the council circulated Tuesday, the UN chief cited improvements in Darfur largely brought on by the democratic revolution of December 2018 that led the military to overthrow President Omar al-Bashir four months later after nearly three decades of rule.

But he also cited the slow implementation of October’s peace agreement and insecurity in parts of Darfur, said The Associated Press.

Guterres said the UN’s primary concern is the increasing frequency of intercommunal violence, clashes among nomads, herders and farmers, and clashes in West Darfur’s Jebel Marra region between security forces and an armed faction Sudan Liberation Army holdout group headed by Abdul Wahid Elnur — and between factions within the rebel group.

In addition, he also pointed to armed groups from other countries using Darfur as a base of operations, to armed individuals and militias, some associated with the al-Bashir regime, operating in the region along with criminals, and to the widespread availability of small arms and light weapons.

The vast western Darfur region was gripped by bloodshed in 2003 when armed factions from the territory’s ethnic central and sub-Saharan African community launched an insurgency accusing the government in Khartoum of discrimination and neglect.

The government, under al-Bashir, responded with a scorched-earth assault of aerial bombings and unleashed local nomadic groups known as the Janjaweed, who are accused of mass killings and rapes. Up to 300,000 people were killed and 2.7 million were driven from their homes.

Since the popular uprising that toppled al-Bashir, Sudan has been on a fragile path to democracy. It is led by a joint military-civilian government that has been struggling to end the decades-long civil wars in Darfur and elsewhere and overcome the country’s dire economic conditions.

In June, Sudanese diplomat Ammar Mohammed told the council that the security situation was improving and that the government was implementing the October peace agreement on the ground “in coordination with all peace partners” and was also collecting unlicensed weapons, adopting measures to prevent intercommunal violence and upholding a national plan to protect civilians.

In light of these developments, he said, punitive measures including sanctions imposed on Sudan over 15 years ago “have completely lost their grounds and are no longer justified.”

But Guterres said in the report that as a result of insecurity “civilians are still experiencing violent attacks, harassment and intimidation by armed groups and some state security entities,” adding that there were 105 cases of conflict-related sexual violence in 2020.

In response to a request from the Security Council, the secretary-general proposed four benchmarks with specific targets that could serve in guiding its members “to review the measures on Darfur." They may also contribute to implementation of the October peace agreement signed in Sudan’s capital Juba as well as the national plan to protect civilians and the government’s weapons collection program, he said.

The proposed benchmarks are:
--Progress on political and economic governance issues including broadening and deepening the legitimacy of the transitional government. The targets include enhancing representation of Darfur’s population, starting to address the drivers of economic conflict in the region, and establishing a Transitional Legislative Council with at least 40% representation of women, including from Darfur.

--Progress on transitional security arrangements in Darfur. The target is establishing and putting in operation measures called for in the peace agreement to oversee implementation and management of issues related to security arrangements.

--Progress on the national action plan for the protection of civilians. He said the focus must be on strengthening the civilian-led implementation of the plan which could enhance the civilian aspects of security.

--Progress on transitional justice and accountability. Guterres said the parties to the peace agreement recognized the need to address the root causes of the Darfur conflict, including the marginalization of its people, and to build on the new era of cooperation between the International Criminal Court and the transitional government. A key target is to put in operation the mechanisms in the Juba agreement to provide accountability for crimes and promote reconciliation.



Dozens of Children and Adults in Gaza Have Starved to Death in July as Hunger Surges 

Naima Abu Ful holds her malnourished 2-year-old child, Yazan, at their home in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City on Wednesday, July 23, 2025. (AP)
Naima Abu Ful holds her malnourished 2-year-old child, Yazan, at their home in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City on Wednesday, July 23, 2025. (AP)
TT
20

Dozens of Children and Adults in Gaza Have Starved to Death in July as Hunger Surges 

Naima Abu Ful holds her malnourished 2-year-old child, Yazan, at their home in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City on Wednesday, July 23, 2025. (AP)
Naima Abu Ful holds her malnourished 2-year-old child, Yazan, at their home in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City on Wednesday, July 23, 2025. (AP)

Five starving children at a Gaza City hospital were wasting away, and nothing the doctors tried was working. The basic treatments for malnourishment that could save them had run out under Israel's blockade. The alternatives were ineffective. One after another, the babies and toddlers died over four days.

In greater numbers than ever, children hollowed up by hunger are overwhelming the Patient's Friends Hospital, the main emergency center for malnourished kids in northern Gaza.

The deaths last weekend also marked a change: the first seen by the center in children who had no preexisting conditions. Symptoms are getting worse, with children too weak to cry or move, said Dr. Rana Soboh, a nutritionist. In past months, most improved, despite supply shortages, but now patients stay longer and don't get better, she said.

“There are no words in the face of the disaster we are in. Kids are dying before the world ... There is no uglier and more horrible phase than this,” said Soboh, who works with the US-based aid organization Medglobal, which supports the hospital.

This month, the hunger that has been building among Gaza’s more than 2 million Palestinians passed a tipping point into accelerating death, aid workers and health staff say. Not only children — usually the most vulnerable — are falling victim under Israel’s blockade since March, but also adults.

In the past three weeks, at least 48 people died of causes related to malnutrition, including 28 adults and 20 children, the Gaza Health Ministry said Thursday. That’s up from 10 children who died in the five previous months of 2025, according to the ministry.

The UN reports similar numbers. The World Health Organization said Wednesday it has documented 21 children under 5 who died of causes related to malnutrition in 2025. The UN humanitarian office, OCHA, said Thursday at least 13 children's deaths were reported in July, with the number growing daily.

“Humans are well developed to live with caloric deficits, but only so far,” said Dr. John Kahler, Medglobal's co-founder and a pediatrician who volunteered twice in Gaza during the war. “It appears that we have crossed the line where a segment of the population has reached their limits”

“This is the beginning of a population death spiral," he said.

The UN’s World Food Program says nearly 100,000 women and children urgently need treatment for malnutrition. Medical workers say they have run out of many key treatments and medicines.

Israel, which began letting in only a trickle of supplies the past two months, has blamed Hamas for disrupting food distribution. The UN counters that Israel, which has restricted aid since the war began, simply has to allow it to enter freely.

Hundreds of malnourished kids brought daily

The Patient's Friends Hospital overflows with parents bringing in scrawny children – 200 to 300 cases a day, said Soboh.

On Wednesday, staff laid toddlers on a desk to measure the circumference of their upper arms — the quickest way to determine malnutrition. In the summer heat, mothers huddled around specialists, asking for supplements. Babies with emaciated limbs screamed in agony. Others lay totally silent.

The worst cases are kept for up to two weeks at the center's 10-bed ward, which this month has had up to 19 children at a time. It usually treats only children under 5, but began taking some as old as 11 or 12 because of worsening starvation among older children.

Hunger gnaws at staff as well. Soboh said two nurses put themselves on IV drips to keep themselves going. “We are exhausted. We are dead in the shape of the living,” she said.

The five children died in succession last Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.

Four of them, aged 4 months to 2 years, had suffered gastric arrest: Their stomachs shut down. The hospital no longer had the right nutrition supplies for them.

The fifth — 4 1/2-year-old Siwar — had alarmingly low potassium levels, a growing problem. She was so weak she could barely move her body. Medicine for potassium deficiency has largely run out across Gaza, Soboh said. The center had only a low-concentration potassium drip.

The little girl didn’t respond. After three days in the ICU, she died Saturday.

“If we don’t have potassium (supplies), we will see more deaths,” she said.

A 2-year-old is wasting away

In the Shati Refugee Camp in Gaza city, 2-year-old Yazan Abu Ful’s mother, Naima, pulled off his clothes to show his emaciated body. His vertebrae, ribs and shoulder-blades jutted out. His buttocks were shriveled. His face was expressionless.

His father Mahmoud, who was also skinny, said they took him to the hospital several times. Doctors just say they should feed him. “I tell the doctors, ‘You see for yourself, there is no food,’” he said,

Naima, who is pregnant, prepared a meal: Two eggplants they bought for $9 cut up and boiled in water. They will stretch out the pot of eggplant-water – not even a real soup – to last them a few days, they said. Several of Yazan’s four older siblings also looked thin and drained.

Holding him in his lap, Mahmoud Abu Ful lifted Yazan’s limp arms. The boy lies on the floor most of the day, too weak to play with his brothers. “If we leave him, he might just slip away from between our fingers, and we can’t do anything.”

Adults, too, are dying

Starvation takes the vulnerable first, experts say: children and adults with health conditions.

On Thursday, the bodies of an adult man and woman with signs of starvation were brought to Gaza City's Shifa Hospital, hospital director Mohammed Abu Selmia said. One suffered from diabetes, the other from a heart condition, but they showed severe deficiencies of nutrients, gastric arrest and anemia from malnutrition.

Many of the adults who have died had some sort of preexisting condition, like diabetes or heart or kidney trouble, worsened by malnutrition, Abu Selmia said. “These diseases don’t kill if they have food and medicine,” he said.

Deaths come after months of Israeli siege

Israel cut off entry of food, medicine, fuel and other supplies completely to Gaza for 2 ½ months starting in March, saying it aimed to pressure Hamas to release hostages. During that time, food largely ran out for aid groups and in marketplaces, and experts warned Gaza was headed for an outright famine.

In late May, Israel slightly eased the blockade. Since then, it has allowed in around 4,500 trucks for the UN and other aid groups to distribute, including 2,500 tons of baby food and high-calorie special food for children, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

That is an average of 69 trucks a day, far below the 500-600 trucks a day the UN says are needed. The UN has been unable to distribute much of the aid because hungry crowds and gangs take most of it from its trucks. Separately, Israel has also backed the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which opened four centers distributing boxes of food supplies. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed trying to reach the sites.

On Tuesday, David Mencer, spokesman for the Israeli Prime Minister’s office, denied there is a “famine created by Israel” in Gaza and blamed Hamas for creating “man-made shortages” by looting aid trucks.

The UN denies Hamas siphons off significant quantities of aid. Humanitarian workers say Israel just needs to allow aid to flow in freely, saying looting stops whenever aid enters in large quantities.