The United Nations Fails Sudan, Again
By Rebecca Tinsley
Founder, Waging Peace
In Sudan ten million civilians, a quarter of the population, have fled their homes to escape indiscriminate bombing by the warring parties; more than six million face starvation. There are also serious geopolitical implications whichever of Sudan’s battling militias wins: the Russians and the Iranians will secure military bases on the Red Sea, with the power to menace international trade; Islamists will once more gain influence; and millions of Sudanese will try to migrate to Europe.
Yet, a deadly combination of racism (“this is what happens in Africa”) and other conflicts competing for the headlines (“compassion fatigue”) has sidelined Sudan. In response, the United Nations calls on all sides to adhere to international law. Those responsible for the killing have so far faced no consequences, concluding that they can continue the slaughter with impunity.
The UN Secretary General’s report to the Security Council on October 28th had echoes of Bosnia, thirty years ago. In practice, Antonio Guterres’s proposals will keep Sudanese civilians alive with humanitarian aid so the militias can kill them at their leisure. So long as the UN does nothing to halt the flood of weapons into Sudan, the conflict will continue. Speaking at Chatham House in London on October 31st, former prime minister Dr Abdullah Hamdok commented that Guterres’s report “fell short of saying anything.”
Twenty years ago, at the height of the targeted ethnic killing in Darfur, I interviewed survivors in an IDP camp there. One eighteen-year-old woman called Hawa had been raped so many times she could no longer sit down, even weeks later. She was assaulted, branded, and called a slave by the Janjaweed militia.
The Janjaweed has since rebranded as the Rapid Support Force, today fighting the Sudanese Armed Forces for control of Sudan’s lucrative economy which has been in the hands of military factions for decades. Hawa’s message was simple: “I want to thank your government for sending the food and blankets, but what we really need is for you to take the guns away from the men killing us.”
UN Secretary General Guterres’s report to the Security Council made clear that the same racist motivation guides the targeted killing of non-Arab Sudanese today, and it includes mass rape, torture and atrocities.
Moreover, the violence now affects much of the country beyond Darfur. The US envoy, Tom Perriello, suggests 150,000 may have been killed since hostilities erupted in April 2023.
The Security Council has access to a wealth of UN-generated information about atrocities occurring in Sudan. On October 29th, the UN’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan reported that the scale of sexual violence being committed is “staggering” and widespread, with girls as young as eight and women as old as 75 targeted for rape and sexual slavery.
The report accused both sides of sexual violence, but said the Rapid Support Forces were responsible for the “large majority” of gang rapes and rape as “punishment for perceived links to their opponents.” Other UN agencies are monitoring human rights violations and coordinating the provision of aid in refugee camps in neighboring countries such as Chad, where more than a million Sudanese have fled.
However, the UN Secretary General failed to confront the diplomatically inconvenient facts by naming names: the UN’s own investigation shows that the United Arab Emirates is supplying weapons to the Rapid Support Forces, brazenly flying planes into the region. Yet, the UN will not extend the (unenforced) Darfur arms embargo to cover all of Sudan. Egypt, Russia and Iran are backing the Sudanese Armed Forces, although their roles are not mentioned by Guterres.
The Secretary General urged all sides to attend peace negotiations and to obey international law. Yet, neither side will stop fighting so long as they believe they can prevail. While outside countries supply weapons, the carnage will not stop.
Nor is the UN calling for a no-fly zone over Sudan to prevent the continual bombardment of civilians. Guterres ruled out intervention to protect civilians or deliver aid.
This is embarrassing territory for the UN: it was the withdrawal of the UN/African Union peacekeepers from Darfur in 2020 (despite warnings from NGOs and civil society) that signaled to Sudan’s militias that they could resume their campaigns of ethnic slaughter unimpeded.
Unsurprisingly, the conflict has spread from Darfur to most regions of Sudan because the stakes – control of the economy and the opportunity to return Sudan to the Islamist fold – are so high.
The UN Secretary General calls for good behavior from men with guns who daily prove that they have no concern for civilians. Sudanese civil society, including Dr Hamdok of the Taggadum alliance against the war, has responded by asking the international community to stop waiting for a ceasefire and to start finding ways to protect civilians.
Both militias control how much aid enters Sudan and how it is distributed, using starvation as a weapon of war. The US envoy believes the Sudanese Armed Forces allow only 10% of aid arriving in Port Sudan to reach those in need.
Back in May 2023, the warring parties signed the Jeddah Declaration, promising to protect civilians and allow unfettered humanitarian aid access. Both sides broke their promises within hours but faced no consequences because there was no mechanism to hold them to account.
Leading figures in the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces have bank accounts and business entities registered in Gulf nations, and yet no meaningful action has been taken to apply targeted smart sanctions on them or to freeze their assets.
Making sanctions personal is the only way the militias will take notice. Calls for monitoring and recording human rights violations are important for future accountability, but are of little comfort to the millions of Sudanese currently in daily jeopardy.
The UN Secretary General rightly praised Sudan’s civil society for stepping in as their government has collapsed. But Emergency Response Rooms and Resistance Committees, the community-based support systems, deserve direct and immediate funding to deliver humanitarian aid and medical services to the long-suffering population.
They cannot wait for the diplomatic etiquette that renders the UN toothless.
*Waging Peace is a human rights group. It campaigns for justice and supports Sudanese refugees.
First published by Ariel University Center for the Research and Study of Genocide
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Ariel University Genocide Research Center
Copyright 2025 Rebecca Tinsley