United Nations and African Union member states should begin planning the deployment of a mission to protect civilians in Sudan, where millions of people are displaced and face famine after a year and a half of brutal armed conflict.
In a new report to the UN Security Council, UN Secretary-General António Guterres outlines steps member states should take to protect Sudan’s civilians and press the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and their rivals, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), to stop committing atrocities. Security Council members are scheduled to discuss the report on October 28.
The recent escalation of fighting in Sudan’s capital Khartoum and El Gezira state is again placing civilians at massive risk of deliberate attacks and of death and injury from explosive weapons used by both parties. Civilians continue to be tortured and summarily executed. Women and girls face widespread sexual violence.
Guterres urges greater support to local responders and international investigations, and cutting off arms flows to the warring parties. Human Rights Watch recently found that both parties acquired new weapons and military equipment that they can use to perpetrate further atrocities produced by companies registered in China, Iran, Russia, Serbia, and the UAE. Guterres also describes calls from Sudanese civilians and local and international human rights groups for a physical protection mission as “indicative of the gravity and urgency of the situation facing civilians.”
Unfortunately, Guterres’ report goes on to state that conditions don’t exist for successfully deploying a UN force. But waiting for ceasefire negotiations to bear fruit or ideal conditions for deploying a mission isn’t an option. Civilians need protection now.
Like Human Rights Watch, the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan has called for deployment of a mission to protect civilians. The former president of Malawi, Joyce Banda, wrote that deploying such a mission wouldn’t be easy, but “the scale of Sudan's crisis, the intransigence of the warring parties, and the clear and consistent demands from Sudanese civilians and civil society demand that we take action.” Such a presence could bolster other protection measures Guterres recommends.
The Security Council should also immediately expand the existing UN arms embargo on Darfur to cover the entire country, impose sanctions on those responsible for atrocities, and make clear they will be held to account.
The international neglect of the suffering of Sudanese civilians needs to end. The time for action is now.
