The UN Security Council, meeting once again amid the 19-month brutal war raging in Sudan that has led to the world’s largest displacement crisis, on Monday rejected a draft resolution intended to bolster measures to protect civilians and increase humanitarian aid access.
The draft, submitted by Sierra Leone and the United Kingdom, garnered support from 14 members but was vetoed by the Russian Federation.
By the text, the 15-member Council would have condemned the continued assault by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in El Fasher and demanded that it immediately halt all its attacks against civilians in Darfur, Al Jazirah State and Sennar State and elsewhere in Sudan.
Further, the Council would have demanded that the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces honor and fully implement their commitments made in the Jeddah Declaration of Commitment to Protect the Civilians of Sudan, including taking all feasible precautions to avoid and minimize civilian harm, refrain from using civilians as human shields and safeguard the needs and necessities indispensable to their survival.
By other terms, the Council would have called on the parties to the conflict to immediately cease hostilities and engage, in good faith, in dialogue to agree on steps to de-escalate the conflict towards urgent agreement on a national ceasefire, as well as on humanitarian pauses and arrangements to ensure the safe passage of civilians and the delivery of adequate humanitarian aid.
Additionally, it would have called on the warring parties to ensure that civilian objects, including hospitals, schools, places of worship, and humanitarian facilities, as well as humanitarian and medical personnel and their means of transport, are protected from attack, consistent with international humanitarian law.
The Russian Federation’s speaker said the draft rejects the Government of Sudan’s right to control border and security as well as protection of civilians.
Notwithstanding the consultations among Council members for which the meeting was suspended at the outset to facilitate agreement, the representative of the Russian Federation, in his explanation of the vote later in the meeting, said “the main problem with the UK draft” is that it has a false understanding of who bears responsibility for the protection of civilians, and border control and security control in the country, of who should decide on inviting foreign forces in Sudan and with whom should UN officials cooperate to address existing problems.
“It should solely be the Government of Sudan […],” he stressed, pointing to “UK authors who are refusing Sudan that right”. “Our country will continue unfailingly to use its veto to prevent such events from happening for our African brothers,” he added, categorically rejecting the use of external accountability mechanisms.
United Kingdom speaker called the Russian Federation’s veto of the draft a disgrace.
“This Russian veto is a disgrace,” declared David Lammy, Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs of the United Kingdom, Council President for November, who spoke in his national capacity.
The United Kingdom, together with Sierra Leone, sought to bring the Council together to address the humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan to protect civilians, ensure aid access, and call for a ceasefire, he said, deploring that “one country stood in the way of the Council speaking with one voice. “Shame on Putin for waging a war in Ukraine and for using his mercenaries to spread conflict and violence across the African continent […] for pretending to be a partner of the Global South while condemning Black Africans to further killing, further rape, further starvation in a brutal war,” he said. His country will continue its work to call for more action to protect the people of Sudan, he said, stressing: “The UK will not forget Sudan.”
The representative of Sierra Leone, co-author of the text, said the Council’s 1999 decision to endorse the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNASMIL) with the protection of civilians in Sierra Leone marked a turning point in the conflict in his country, which ultimately led to the Lomé Peace Accord. The draft resolution did not mandate troop deployment in Sudan in line with the Secretary-General’s assessment, he pointed out, but it would have conveyed solidarity and established mechanisms to prevent further atrocities.
Council members were united in their deep concern about the plight of Sudanese people amid unrelenting violence and hostilities, and in regret that the Council was not able to adopt the resolution due to a veto.
Two fellow permanent Council members joined the United Kingdom in calling out the Russian Federation. The United States delegate said it is “shocking that Russia has vetoed an effort to save lives”, “but Sudan supports the resolution”. Moscow is “playing both sides” to advance its political objectives at the expense of Sudanese lives, she observed, adding: “Russia claims that it is ‘for’ and ‘with’ Africans, but votes against the resolution supported by Africans, for Africans.”
France’s delegate underscored that the Russian Federation’s veto was “without any convincing justification”. “The situation in Sudan is disastrous,” he stressed, emphasizing the urgent need for the Council to call for a ceasefire. The humanitarian crisis can only be settled if weapons are laid down, he said.
The post Russia vetoes Security Council resolution to protect civilians, increase aid access in Sudan appeared first on Radio Tamazuj.
