US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield urged the warring parties in Sudan to stop the fighting and get back to the negotiating table in Jeddah and find a way out of the fighting that broke out on April 15, 2023.
Thomas then called on the Sudanese Armed Forces, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, to immediately ensure lifesaving aid is delivered and distributed, or the Security Council will intervene including, if necessary, through a cross-border mechanism.
The Ambassador then accused the Rapid Support Forces, led by Lieutenant General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, nicknamed “Hemedti,” of committing mass killings and atrocities, amid fears of widespread famine and disease.
At a US Department press briefing in Washington marking one year of civil war in Sudan, Thomas mentioned the trip of Special Envoy Tom Perriello to Chad last week and his visit to Adré Refugee Camp right along the border of Sudan.
The US Ambassador, who had visited that same refugee camp in September, said hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees had fled for this camp in the months prior – 90 percent of them women and children.
She said April 11th should be a historic occasion as we mark the five-year anniversary of the revolution that toppled the Omar al-Bashir’s regime.
“Five years ago, you could practically taste the spirit of freedom, peace, and democracy in the air as women and young people took to the streets demanding change,” Thomas said.
She revealed that nearly 25 million Sudanese people live in dire need of humanitarian assistance and protection; three-quarters of them face acute food insecurity and about 8 million have had to flee their homes in what has become the world’s largest internal displacement crisis.
Thomas mentioned reports of gang rape, mass murder at the hands of the Rapid Support Forces militia, of girls sold into sexual slavery, boys being made into child soldiers, of urban areas destroyed by arial weapons, and entire villages burned to the ground.
And yet, she said, as communities barrel toward famine, as cholera and measles spread, as violence continues to claim countless lives, the world has largely remained silent.
“And that must change and it has to change now. The international community must give more, it must do more, and it has to care more,” the Ambassador warned.
She revealed that just 5 percent of the UN’s humanitarian appeal for Sudan has been met.
“Already, the World Food Program has had to cut assistance to over 7 million people in Chad and South Sudan, and that includes 1.2 million refugees like the ones I met in Adré, people who were already struggling to feed themselves and their families,” she said.
Thomas also referred to experts warnings that the coming weeks and months, over 200,000 more children could die of starvation, and affirmed that in addition to lacking aid, humanitarian workers have been systematically obstructed from delivering aid to those in need.
From the beginning, brave people have been on the ground, often putting their lives at risk, to save people in Sudan, she said.
But at every turn, the ambassador added, combatants on both sides of the war have undermined their work. That includes the SAF, which has impeded the major humanitarian aid crossings from Chad into Darfur.
“Should the SAF not reverse course immediately, the Security Council must intervene to ensure lifesaving aid is delivered and distributed, including, if necessary, through a cross-border mechanism,” she warned.
