Sudan abstains on UNGA vote condemning annexation of Ukrainian regions

October 13, 2022 (UNITED NATIONS) – Sudan abstained in a United Nations General Assembly vote to condemn the annexation several Ukrainian regions by Russia on Wednesday.

In order to avoid a Russian veto at the Security Council, the General Assembly Wednesday condemned the Russian Federation’s illegal annexation of the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine.

In a resolution approved by 143 countries, the assembly further demanded Russia immediately withdraw all its military forces from Ukraine’s territory.
However, Sudan was among 35 countries that abstained from condemning the annexation.

South Sudan, South Africa, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Burundi, and Algeria are among the abstainers.

Four countries, including Syria, Nicaragua, North Korea, Belarus, and Russia, voted against the resolution.

Sudan’s representative in the United Nation did not take the floor to explain the vote of his country. But, Algeria, South Africa and Pakistan spoke to explain their positions.

A representative of Algeria reaffirmed his country’s opposition to annexing territories by force. Further, he called to end double standards and work on ending all forms of occupation and annexation by force of territories, particularly Palestine, the occupied Syrian Golan and Western Sahara.

The South African ambassador said that the territorial integrity of States, including Ukraine, is “sacrosanct”. However, to explain the abstention, she said the resolution does not include concrete proposals to end the war.

For his part, the ambassador of Pakistan voiced his country’s support for the right to self-determination for people under foreign or colonial occupation and those who have not exercised that right, as is the case in Jammu and Kashmir, he said, referring to the dispute with India over these territories.

(ST)