UN extends Darfur arms embargo by a month as Sudan vote splits council
The UN Security Council on Friday unanimously voted to extend the arms embargo on Sudan's western Darfur region for a month, while negotiations continue on a US proposal to expand the embargo across the country. The move underlined sharp divisions in the council, with Russia making clear it will block any attempt to widen the restrictions.
The debate comes as Sudan's war, which began in April 2023 between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, continues to cause a major humanitarian crisis. The conflict has killed at least 59,000 people, though aid groups say the toll could be much higher, displaced around 13 million people and pushed parts of the country into famine.
Speaking after the vote, Russia's deputy UN ambassador Anna Evstigneeva said Moscow had made its "red lines" clear in closed negotiations. "We will not allow even a hint of broadening the restrictions by the council on Sudan," she said. Russia, which has veto power in the council, backs the Sudanese government in its fight against the paramilitary forces.
The Security Council first imposed an arms embargo on Darfur after violence broke out in 2003, when rebels took up arms against the government in Khartoum led at the time by Omar al-Bashir. The government responded with air strikes and a ground offensive by local nomadic Arab militias known as the Janjaweed, who were accused of mass killings and rapes. Up to 3,00,000 people were killed and 2.7 million were forced to flee their homes during that conflict.
At a council meeting on August 24, the United States pushed for a nationwide arms embargo to pressure both sides in the current war into negotiations. Evstigneeva questioned why Washington was seeking to widen the embargo now, when government forces "have a definite advantage on the ground", and not in 2023 when the RSF was threatening Khartoum and other cities. She said it is the government that guarantees the country's unity and institutions, and protects its civilians.
China's deputy UN ambassador Sun Lei also opposed any expansion, warning that it would worsen the humanitarian situation and could lead to the fragmentation of Sudan, threatening regional stability. Sudan's UN Ambassador Al-Harith Mohamed told the council that a total arms embargo would go against the UN Charter, which guarantees countries the right to self-defence and allows their armed forces to produce and acquire weapons to protect sovereignty.
On the other side, US 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". He said the council also needed to sanction those responsible for "horrific actions", including sexual violence, kidnapping for ransom and attacks on humanitarian personnel. "Inaction means more suffering and death," Bartos said. "That is unacceptable, and we refuse to rubber stamp another year of maintaining the status quo." He also repeated the US call to stop the flow of arms from external parties to the warring sides.
Bartos also criticised attacks on aid convoys, referring to last week's loss of more than 50 metric tonnes of aid in an aerial attack on clearly identified World Food Program trucks in South Kordofan. WFP acting director Carl Skau told AP during a recent visit to Sudan that funding shortages had forced the agency to cut the number of people it was helping from about 5 million at the start of the year to 3.5 million. "We risk now having to cut even further," he said. "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 added.
For now, the Security Council has only agreed to keep the Darfur arms embargo in place for another month, while members remain divided over whether it should be expanded to the whole of Sudan as the war and humanitarian crisis continue.
