Urgent intervention is needed to stem flow of arms to Sudan

The Sudanese crisis, or rather the tragedy of a geographically strategic country, corroborates the idea that external interventions can destroy a state in a matter of weeks, displace populations, cause all kinds of abuses, massacres, rapes, and popular retribution, as well as unbearable human tragedies such as the famine cruelly spreading among millions of refugees. The civil war, which has lasted for more than two years amid a kind of shameless indifference, must urgently challenge us.

The fighting between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces has caused the deaths of more than 150,000 people and triggered the largest displacement and hunger crisis in the world. Some 13 million people have fled their homes, and more than 30 million are in need of humanitarian aid, while the Sudanese economy is in ruins and every city is devastated.

This deadly civil war, in which the two belligerents are unable to win, must be stopped immediately. The time has come for the international community to fully assume its responsibilities and silence the guns. To achieve this, minimal conditions must be met.

First and foremost, and this is a crucial issue, the UN, the African Union, and the European Union must regain control, that is, act as a neutral peacekeeping force, unlike the actors we see today, poorly disguised, fanning the flames on the ground.

According to the Washington Post and European reports, the Sudanese army has benefited from the support of Turkey and Iran. A series of documents and communications reveals how a Turkish company secretly smuggled weapons to the Sudanese army. A secret shipment of Turkish drones and missiles was delivered to the Sudanese army in September and continues to this day.

The General Coordination for Displaced Persons and Refugees in Darfur (a civilian organization) stated in a statement that it strongly suspects that Sudanese military aircraft used chemical weapons in raids launched on several areas of the region in recent days.

Most recently, an international human rights coalition called for urgent action to protect civilians in Sudan and put an end to the violations, abuses, and war crimes committed by the army and its extremist allies.

In September, the UN’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan reported that both the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, as well as their respective allies, were found to be responsible for patterns of large-scale violations, including indiscriminate and direct attacks carried out through airstrikes and shelling against civilians, schools, hospitals, communication networks and vital water and electricity supplies. The warring parties also targeted civilians through rape and other forms of sexual violence, arbitrary arrest and detention, as well as torture and ill-treatment.

US secretary of state Anthony Blinken stated last year on April 16 that the Sudanese armed forces, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, have committed documented war crimes, including targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure and carrying out summary executions. The US Secretary of State confirmed that the United States has imposed sanctions on Burhan, as well as on a company and an individual involved in arms procurement, in a move he described as aimed at holding accountable those involved in crimes and violations committed during the Sudanese conflict.

Four urgent actions to halt the conflict

The United Nations, with African and European support, represents a reliable actor capable of establishing an inclusive and lasting peace in this troubled country. The international ambitions of actors with different hidden and overt agendas must give way to multidimensional and in-depth work to re-establish dialogue between the warring brothers.

The actions to be considered can be summarised in order of priority:

1) Rescue and assist people in distress who are facing a deadly famine. The de facto authorities (the army) must not obstruct the arrival of aid or use it as a weapon of starvation against certain Sudanese components.

2) Deploy neutral international armed forces on Sudan’s borders to control, intercept, and prevent the supply of weapons to the belligerents.

3) Enter into negotiations to achieve a ceasefire as soon as possible.

4) The permanent members of the UN Security Council must exert pressure on the foreign parties involved in this conflict to cease their interventionism. While there are many conflicts and hotbeds of tension in the world, the civil war in Sudan requires absolute priority because it carries a significant risk of internationalisation and contagion that could destabilise Sudan’s neighbouring countries, some of which share similar fragility and weak state institutions.