US urges new UN sanctions to spur rivals in Sudan to negotiate an end to war

The United States is advocating for strengthened United Nations sanctions on the belligerent factions in Sudan to spur them into negotiations aimed at ending a conflict that has claimed at least 59,000 lives, displaced 13 million, and plunged parts of the country into famine. President Donald Trump's senior adviser for Arab and African affairs, Massad Boulos, testified to the U.N.

Security Council on Monday that financial, military, and political backing provided to either the government forces or the rival paramilitary group, Rapid Support Forces (RSF), is fueling the conflict, which has persisted for four years. Boulos declined to single out any nation providing such aid. Egypt has vocally supported Sudan's military, while the United Arab Emirates faces accusations from U.N. experts and human rights organizations of supplying arms to RSF, a claim the UAE has repeatedly denied.

Two years ago, U.N.-backed human rights investigators called for broadening the arms embargo from Sudan's troubled western Darfur region to the entire nation. Boulos stated that the Security Council possesses the tools to restrict the "massive and growing military assistance" provided to both sides by numerous external entities.

He proposed a U.S. resolution to expand the arms embargo to cover the whole of Sudan and to apply to "all parties operating in the territory," reaffirming that drones and associated technologies are subject to the embargo. Experts highlight that Sudan's army and RSF are vying to acquire new drone models, with rights groups noting the increasing use of unmanned aircraft in the country's ongoing war.

The U.S. draft resolution, accessed by The Associated Press, laments "the continuous influx of external military assistance, weapons, and ammunition to the warring parties, which prolongs the conflict and undermines mediation efforts," including drones and unmanned aerial systems procured from third countries. The proposed resolution urges all nations to "cease any direct or indirect support to the warring parties, whether logistical, financial, or military, that enables the conflict to persist."

The conflict escalated from a power struggle following Sudan's transition to democracy after an uprising ousted the long-standing autocratic President Omar al-Bashir in April 2019. Tensions resurfaced three years later between Sudan's military chief, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, who heads the ruling sovereign council, and RSF commander Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, Burhan's former deputy.

Burhan recently declared that new sanctions would not dissuade his forces from continuing the war until RSF-controlled areas are taken, according to the army-controlled SUNA news agency. "Our souls and destiny are in God's hands," he said at a police graduates ceremony in Khartoum. "Our message to those holed up in foreign hotels applauding sanctions meant to subjugate the Sudanese people is as follows: The people will not be broken, but we will break and defeat you."

U.N. political chief Rosemary DiCarlo told the Security Council that despite numerous diplomatic attempts to get government and paramilitary leaders to commence negotiations and cease hostilities, "the parties remain ensconced in a zero-sum military mindset." "Greater international attention and action are urgently required to compel them to alter that outlook," she asserted. The AP's Noha Elhennawy in Cairo contributed to this report.