US urges UN Security Council action to get aid from Chad to Sudan

United Nations (Reuters) – The United States warned on Thursday that if Sudanese do not reinstate armed forces, it would pressure the U.N. Security Council to take action to get aid to starving people in Sudan, possibly Chad. By authorizing cross border delivery from. full access.

Ahead of the one-year anniversary of the conflict in Sudan, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the warring parties had undermined aid operations and ignored Security Council calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities.

“The situation in Sudan remains dire and is getting worse,” he told reporters. “People are dying of hunger.”

On April 15, 2023, war broke out in Sudan between the Sudanese Army (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The UN says about 25 million people – half Sudan’s population – need aid, about 8 million have fled their homes and about 5 million could face catastrophic hunger in the coming months.

Thomas-Greenfield accused the SAF of obstructing aid from Chad into Sudan’s Darfur region, controlled by the rival RSF, describing it as “literally a matter of life and death”.

He called on the SAF to immediately fully reopen the border, saying, “One child dies every two hours in the Zamzam camp in North Darfur. Experts warn that more than 200,000 could die in the coming weeks and months.” Children can die of hunger.”

“Should they not, the Security Council should take immediate action to provide and distribute life-saving assistance, including – if necessary – through cross-border mechanisms,” Thomas-Greenfield said.

The Security Council has authorized such operations before – for nine years it allowed humanitarian aid to be delivered to millions of people from neighboring countries into opposition-held areas of Syria.

The United States says the warring parties in Sudan have committed war crimes. US special envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello said on Tuesday that Washington was eyeing the possible resumption of peace talks on Sudan in Saudi Arabia on April 18.

Between 10,000 and 15,000 people were killed in one city alone in Sudan’s West Darfur region in ethnic violence by the RSF and allied Arab militias last year, according to a UN sanctions monitor report seen by Reuters in January.

(Reporting by Michelle Nicholls; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

Copyright 2024 Thomson Reuters,