Sudan: Watchdog calls for urgent action to avert descent into civil war
April 15, 2023 (KHARTOUM) – The international community should take urgent action to call for an end to the current fighting in Sudan, a watchdog said Sunday.
Sudan Policy and Transparency Tracker, in a statement extended to {Sudan Tribune}, said an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council be immediately convened to address these issues, with particular focus on protection of civilians.
Armed clashes between Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), an independent military force, erupted on the morning of April 15, 2023, in heavily populated parts of the capital, Khartoum, and spread to other cities including in the Darfur region.
The clashes follow weeks of rising tensions between the two forces over security force reform during negotiations for a new transitional government and was preceded by the SAF and RSF jointly overthrowing Sudan’s transitional government in October 2021.
The watchdog condemned the violence that broke out between SAF and RSF in various parts of Sudan on Saturday.
“We should remain clear eyed about the reasons for this fighting. The SAF and the RSF are vying for supremacy in a new Sudanese political dispensation. Each side is seeking to preserve and expand the kleptocratic networks of privilege and power that they built up under the Bashir regime and during the subsequent transition,” partly noted the group’s statement.
It called on the various stakeholders, including the civil society, to denounce what it described as an attempt to return former President Omar Al-Bashir to power through the barrel of the gun.
“This would include fostering greater cohesion is needed among the key international and regional actors with influence in Sudan: the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and the United States,” noted the watchdog.
It added, “Key actors should learn from this to ensure that sustained attention is paid to key issues – combatting the corruption and kleptocratic networks that incentivize this fighting and implementing broader security sector reform to bring both forces under civilian control”.
Meanwhile, Mohamed Osman, the Sudan researcher at Human Rights Watch expressed concerns over clashes between the RSF and SAF.
“Sudan’s military leaders are again showing utter disregard for the hopes and rights of the Sudanese people. With clashes taking place in densely populated areas, both sides need to take measures to protect civilians and civilian structures from harm. Sudan’s international partners, which have failed to hold military leaders to account for abuses since the coup and beyond, need to take a prompt and concrete response,” said Osman.
He added, “The United Nations Security Council should hold an emergency meeting and publicly call on all forces to protect civilians.”
(ST)