The US is stepping up pressure for a UN arms embargo covering all of Sudan, saying that cutting off weapons and foreign support to the country's warring parties is essential to ending a civil war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions.
Michael Waltz, the US ambassador to the UN, and Massad Boulos, senior adviser to President Donald Trump for Arab and African affairs, made the case for the measure in an opinion piece published on Thursday in Foreign Policy, saying the Security Council has an opportunity to curb the flow of weapons that has helped sustain Sudan's civil war.
“More than a dozen countries with diverse motives are providing some form of military support to the warring parties” said Mr Waltz and Mr Boulos.
Their intervention came a day after a UN independent fact-finding mission warned that foreign arms, military technology, fighters and logistical networks are strengthening both sides of the conflict and enabling increasingly sophisticated attacks against civilians.
The US last month submitted a draft Security Council resolution seeking to expand an existing UN arms embargo on Darfur to cover the entire country, and explicitly include drones and related systems and technology. The proposal has faced opposition from Sudan's army-backed government as well as China and Russia – both of which hold veto power.
The Darfur arms embargo, in place for more than two decades, is set to expire on September 12 if a new agreement is not reached.
Mr Waltz and Mr Boulos said the existing embargo, imposed in 2005 and limited to the vast Darfur region, has failed to keep pace with the war's expansion into areas such as Kordofan and Blue Nile state, and the increasing use of drones.
They said the proposed resolution would apply to the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and its rival, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), as well as networks supplying either side.
The war erupted in April 2023 after a power struggle between the SAF, led by Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, and the RSF, commanded by Gen Mohamed Dagalo, also known as Hemedti.
Both forces have been accused of grave abuse during the war. A previous UN fact-finding report said the SAF and RSF had deliberately targeted civilians and civilian infrastructure, and found many violations amounted to war crimes. It said RSF actions during its capture of El Fasher, in Darfur, included killings, rape, torture, forced displacement and persecution that could amount to crimes against humanity.
The SAF has also been accused of serious abuse. In July, the US imposed new sanctions on Sudan's government over its use of chemical weapons in the war.
Mr Waltz and Mr Boulos said the US wants the proposed embargo to be accompanied by stronger monitoring and enforcement. They added the measure is intended to create pressure for a humanitarian truce and a broader political process, noting neither the SAF nor RSF should determine Sudan's political future.
“Sudan's future cannot belong to whichever armed faction is left standing,” they wrote, calling instead for an independent civilian dialogue that gives Sudanese people a role in determining the country's future.
The war in Sudan has created what the UN describes as the world’s worst health and humanitarian crisis, with an estimated 20 million people facing acute hunger. “As long as weapons are easier to come by than food in Sudan, cooler heads have little chance to prevail,” said the US diplomats.
