Warring factions in Sudan agree to provide humanitarian aid

The Sudanese Army and the Rapid Support Forces (FAR) paramilitaries reached a preliminary agreement in principle in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Thursday, Al Arabiya reported.

Representatives of the Sudanese army, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and of General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo’s Paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (FAR), have agreed to facilitate humanitarian access to conflict zones. The commitment includes guaranteeing the safety of the passage of civilians and protecting their supplies, in an attempt to mitigate the humanitarian crisis that has affected the Sudanese.

And it is that the agreement comes at a time when Sudan is in the midst of a humanitarian crisis and an armed conflict that has affected thousands of people.

The Sudanese armed forces have been fighting paramilitaries, leading to hundreds of deaths and hundreds of thousands of displaced people. In conflict zones, such as the capital Khartoum and Western Darfur, the lack of access to food, water and basic medical care has further worsened the situation. The international community has called for action to address the causes of the conflict and reach a lasting ceasefire, while some countries try to provide humanitarian aid, although still insufficient to meet the needs of those affected.

The Jeddah negotiations, an attempt to get out of the crisis

As fighting between the army and paramilitaries continued – in Khartoum and other cities in Sudan – negotiations between their representatives began last weekend in Saudi Arabia.

The emissaries of both parties had to negotiate a truce. But as Sudan has been in a deadlock since the 2021 coup, Sudanese and international negotiators present in Saudi Arabia have claimed that these talks were only technical and did not concern any political aspect.

The experts said they will limit themselves to clearing safe corridors for humanitarian aid arriving on Sudan’s eastern coast to feed and care for civilians trapped in Khartoum and the Darfur region. In the capital and in Darfur no hospital is working and most of the humanitarian supplies have been bombed or looted.

In an interview with the AFP news agency, Kholood Khair, an expert on Sudan and founder of the think tank Confluence Advisory, said the lack of political results from the talks is not surprising. According to her, the supporters of the civil power are not represented in Jeddah, nor are the actors who could change the agreement, that is, the United Arab Emirates, great allies of Daglo, and Egypt, a historical partner of the Sudanese army.

A UN resolution to reinforce and document human rights abuses

On the other hand, and in spite of the energetic resistance of several nations, the Council of Human Rights of the UN approved this Thursday a resolution to increase the supervision of the abuses in Sudan. The vote, which took place at an emergency meeting in Geneva, was called by the United Kingdom, Norway, the United States and Germany. The text received 18 votes in favor, 15 against and 14 abstentions.

Several Western countries pointed out during the debate the need to start documenting human rights violations without waiting for the conflict to be resolved. However, the text does not create a specific investigation mechanism, but rather provides for greater monitoring of the situation and documentation of the abuses by the UN.

The decree calls on the independent expert on Sudan to document “all allegations of human rights violations and abuses since October 25, 2021, including those arising directly from the current conflict.” The expert must submit a report in the coming months, as will the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The resolution also calls for “the immediate cessation of violence by all parties, without preconditions.”

“It is an important day for the Human Rights Council, which shows that it supports peace, human rights and international law, and is a vote for peace,” British Ambassador Simon Manley told the AFP news agency.

However, the resolution was on the verge of not being approved, since it was strongly opposed by Khartoum, but not only. The countries of the Arab League and China were against the text, alleging a violation of the sovereignty of Sudan. As for African countries, they insisted on the need to find “African solutions to African problems.”

The UN has a duty of “responsibility” regarding the situation in Sudan

Shortly before the vote, the French ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Jérôme Bonnafont, warned countries that “if this Council remained silent while the fighting continued (…) if it did not act, it would not assume its responsibility.”

Clashes that broke out on April 15 between the two generals have left more than 750 dead and 5,000 injured, according to NGOs and authorities. Unicef ​​has also warned that the number of child victims of the conflict is “terribly high.”

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The deadly fighting has plunged Sudan “into catastrophe”, declared the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, at the opening of the meeting.

“I take this opportunity to urge all states with influence in the region to promote, by all possible means, the resolution of this crisis,” he said in a video message. Türk “strongly condemned this unjustified violence” and accused both sides of “contempt for international humanitarian law, including the principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution.”

On the other hand, the official reported that his office has received several complaints of sexual violence by uniformed men, as well as “complaints of unlawful homicides and forced disappearances.”

According to the UN, some 900,000 people have left their homes to take refuge in areas safe from fighting: 177,000 are refugees in neighboring countries, while the number of displaced people inside Sudan exceeded 700,000 on Tuesday.

with AFP