UN Orders End to Sudanese Siege

A resolution calling for the immediate cessation of Sudan’s paramilitary force’s siege of the only capital in the vast uncontrolled western region of Darfur—where over a million people are supposedly trapped—was adopted by the UN Security Council on Thursday, June 13.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Force and the Sudanese military are also urged in the British-sponsored resolution “to seek an immediate cessation of hostilities” in order to put an end to their more than year-long conflict. The resolution passed 14-0 with Russia abstaining.

It conveys “severe concern” about the violence that is increasing and verifiable claims that the Rapid Support Forces are committing “ethnically motivated violence” in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, and El Geneina, West Darfur, last year.

The resolution sends a strong message to the RSF that it must “immediately stop the siege of El Fasher and that all sides step back from the brink,” as British Ambassador to the United Nations Barbara Woodward told the council following the vote.

She issued a warning: “An attack on the city would be catastrophic for the 1.5 million people who are sheltering there.” “This bloody and unfair war has to end.”