The United Nations Security Council has called for a ceasefire in Sudan to coincide with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and allow aid to get to 25 million people in desperate need of food with the humanitarian response at breaking point.
Fourteen countries on the 15-member council on Friday backed the resolution proposed by the United Kingdom. Only Russia abstained on the vote that called on “all parties to the conflict to seek a sustainable resolution to the conflict through dialogue”.
Fighting has been raging in Sudan since April 15, 2023, pitting the army of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of General Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo.
Sudan is facing a rapidly deepening crisis as war rages across the country, with nearly 18 million people facing acute hunger. Of these, nearly 5 million people are in emergency levels of hunger, the World Food Programme stated.
Tens of thousands of people have since been killed, 8.3 million have been forcibly displaced and the fighting has additionally destroyed infrastructure and crippled the economy.
Sudan also faces the worst displacement crisis in the world, with around 7.7 million people forced from their homes since the conflict erupted in April 2023, according to the International Organization for Migration.
The resolution called on all sides to adopt an immediate “cessation of hostilities” ahead of Ramadan, a time for fasting, prayer and reflection for Muslims worldwide. It urged the warring parties to allow “unhindered” humanitarian access across borders and battlelines.
The resolution also expressed “grave concern over the spreading violence and the catastrophic and deteriorating humanitarian situation, including crisis levels, or worse, of acute food insecurity, particularly in Darfur”.
Russia said Britain’s initiative was hypocritical since the UNSC had failed to call for an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza, because of the United States repeatedly wielding its veto to block resolutions.
“We have no illusions as to the true intentions of Western countries. However, the double standards look particularly glaring given that those same countries are dragging out the adoption of a document on a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, where a genuine massacre is taking place,” said Russia’s deputy UN ambassador, Anna Evstigneeva.
