The UN Security Council on Monday received a peace initiative from Sudan’s Prime Minister Kamil Idris, which demanded that the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) be disarmed.
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The RSF deemed the idea “wishful thinking” and rejected the plan.
The Sudanese army and the RSF paramilitary group engaged in a power struggle in April 2023, which sparked a conflict. According to UN figures, 30.4% of Sudanese people now require humanitarian assistance, while 9.6 million internally displaced and 4.3 million forced to flee to neighboring countries.
Fears of intensifying fighting during the dry season have been confirmed, according to UN Assistant Secretary-General Mohamed Khaled Khiari, who addressed the UNSC this week.
He claimed that “each day brings shocking levels of violence and destruction.” “Civilians are enduring enormous, unimaginable suffering without a cure in sight.”
Sudan’s central Kordofan region, where the RSF seized the key Heglig oilfield on December 8, has recently seen a shift in the conflict. South Sudanese forces entered Sudan to defend the infrastructure, which Khiari argued reflects “the conflict’s growing regional dimensions and its increasingly complex nature.”
In addition to attacking towns in the Dar Zaghawa region close to the Chad border since December 24, the RSF has launched a final push to regain full control of North Darfur state. The last escape route for civilians fleeing the country to Chad is being threatened by the offensive.
Two Chadian soldiers were killed in a drone attack at a military camp in Tine, which spread across Sudan’s borders on Friday.
Sudanese drone was reported to have come from Sudan, but it’s not clear whether it was launched by the army or the RSF, according to a Chadian military intelligence officer. If the strike is determined to be deliberate, the Chad air force is on high alert and will “exercise our right to retaliation.”
The UN made a remarkable breakthrough by conducting its first assessment mission to El-Fasher since the city fell to the RSF, which came on Friday in a rare development.
According to UN Humanitarian Coordinator Denise Brown, “months of intense fighting, siege, and widespread violations against civilians and humanitarian workers” followed, and “hundreds of thousands of civilians have been forced to flee El-Fasher and surrounding areas.”
A report from Yale University earlier this month revealed systematic mass killings by the RSF in El-Fasher, with satellite imagery demonstrating widespread human remains burning and burial.
Last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated at a press conference that “everyone involved is going to look bad and the story of what actually happened is going to be known.”
There is no compelling evidence that any significant progress has been made, despite Rubio’s claim that he desired the end of the conflict before the new year.
In accordance with Prime Minister Idris’ peace plan, a full withdrawal of the RSF from Sudan, which it controls, is required immediately. However, Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo’s advisor, Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti,” called the idea “closer to fantasy than politics.”
Source: Aljazeera
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