Russia vetoes UN resolution calling for immediate cease-fire in the war between Sudan’s rival forces

Russia vetoed a UN resolution Monday calling for an immediate ceasefire in the war between Sudan’s military and paramilitary forces and delivery of humanitarian aid to millions in desperate need.

Russia’s ally China supported the resolution sponsored by the United Kingdom and Sierra Leone, along with all other UN Security Council members, but Moscow’s veto doomed the measure.

U.K. Foreign Minister David Lammy, who chaired the meeting, told the council afterward: “This Russian veto is a disgrace. … While Britain works with our African partners, Russia vetoes their will.”

“How many more Sudanese have to be killed, how many more women have to be raped, how many more children have to go without food before Russia will act?” he asked.

Sudan plunged into conflict in April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary leaders erupted in the capital, Khartoum, and spread to other regions, including western Darfur, which was wracked by bloodshed and atrocities in 2003. The UN recently warned that Sudan has been pushed to the brink of famine.

Last week, UN political chief Rosemary DiCarlo accused allies of Sudan’s warring forces of “enabling the slaughter” that has killed more than 24,000 people and created the world’s worst displacement crisis. U.S. President Joe Biden echoed those concerns Monday at the G20 meeting in Brazil.

“On Sudan, we’re seeing one of the world’s most serious humanitarian crises — eight million people on the brink of famine,” he said. “This deserves our collective outrage and our collective attention. External actors must stop arming” the parties.

Biden urged “one voice” to tell the rival forces: ’Stop tearing your country apart. Stop blocking aid to the Sudanese people. Stop the violence.”

Russia’s deputy UN Ambassador Dmitry Polyansky told the Security Council that Moscow vetoed the resolution because “it should be solely the government of Sudan” that should be responsible for what happens in the country.

The main problem with the resolution, he said, is its “false understanding of who bears responsibility for the protection of civilians in Sudan and for border control and security control in the country, and who should take a decision to invite foreign forces to Sudan.”

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield retorted: “It is shocking that Russia has vetoed an effort to save lives, though perhaps it shouldn’t be.”

She added that “for months, Russia has obstructed and obfuscated, standing in the way of council action to address the catastrophic situation in Sudan and playing … both sides of the conflict, to advance its own political objectives at the expense of Sudanese lives.”

China’s UN Ambassador Fu Cong cited the war’s increasing casualties and “increasingly dire” humanitarian situation, and said: “China stands for the realization of immediate ceasefire and de-escalation of the situation for the sake of protecting civilians. Therefore, we voted in favor of the draft resolution.”

Sudan has accused the United Arab Emirates of arming the RSF, which the UAE denies. The RSF has also reportedly received support from Russia’s Wagner mercenary group. And UN experts said in a report earlier this year that the RSF received support from Arab-allied communities and new military supply lines running through Chad, Libya and South Sudan.

As for the government, Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, who led a military takeover of Sudan in 2021, has received Russian support and is a close ally of neighboring Egypt and its president, former army chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. In February, Sudan’s foreign minister held talks in Tehran with his Iranian counterpart amid unconfirmed reports of drone purchases for government forces.

Sudan’s UN Ambassador Al-Harith Idris said his country is ready to cooperate with all countries ready to condemn the RSF and its allied militias, stop the flow of weapons to them, and “to respect the sovereignty of Sudan through implementing a a plan to protect civilians.”

“Sudan is in an existential battle where choices are limited,” he said. “Either Sudan remains free, independent and united, or it vanishes.”