Russia has vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Sudan as the country continues to grapple with a deadly war that has displaced millions of people and spurred a humanitarian crisis.
The resolution, authored by the United Kingdom and Sierra Leone, had called on all warring parties in Sudan to “immediately cease hostilities” and initiate a dialogue on a “national ceasefire”.
Russia was the only member of the 15-member council to vote against the measure on Monday morning, in a move that British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said was “mean, nasty and cynical”.
“One country stood in the way of the council speaking with one voice. One country is the blocker,” Lammy said after the vote.
“How many more Sudanese have to be killed, how many more women have to be raped, how many more children have to go without food before Russia will act? Russia will have to explain itself to the entire United Nations membership now.”
War erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April 2023, creating the world’s largest displacement crisis and killing tens of thousands, according to UN officials.
The conflict has displaced more than 11 million people, including 3.1 million who have fled the country, the UN has reported.
A truck carrying gunmen affiliated with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) drives on a street in the eastern city of Gadarif on November 11, 2024 [AFP]
Monday’s draft resolution called on the parties to the conflict to “immediately cease hostilities and engage, in good faith, in dialogue to agree steps to de-escalate the conflict with the aim of urgently agreeing a national ceasefire“.
It also called on them to engage in dialogue to agree to humanitarian pauses and to ensure the safe passage of civilians and the delivery of adequate humanitarian aid, among other measures.
In an address to the council after the vote, Russia’s deputy ambassador to the UN said Moscow agreed “that the conflict in Sudan requires a swift resolution” and that “the only way to achieve this is for the warring parties to agree to a ceasefire”.
But Dmitry Polyanskiy said while the UNSC’s role is to help the warring parties achieve that, it “should not be done by imposing upon the Sudanese, through a council decision, the opinion of its individual members”.
He accused the UK and Sierra Leone of “double standards”, pointing to Britain’s support of Israel’s ongoing humanitarian violations in its war in Gaza, and said Lammy’s criticism was an “excellent demonstration of British neo-colonialism”.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the United States ambassador to the UN, echoed her British counterpart, however, as she slammed the Russian veto as “unconscionable”.
“It is shocking that Russia has vetoed an effort to save lives – though perhaps, it shouldn’t be,” Thomas-Greenfield said on Monday after the Security Council vote. “They claim it is because of Sudanese sovereignty. But Sudan supports the resolution.”
The US ambassador said Russia had “obstructed and obfuscated” diplomatic efforts to address the humanitarian situation in Sudan for months.
The UN has said nearly 25 million people – half of Sudan’s population – need aid as famine has taken hold in displacement camps.
The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), a conflict monitoring group, has reported that at least 20,178 people have been killed across the country since the war began.
The death toll may be much higher, however, as a recent study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine’s Sudan Research Group found that more than 60,000 people have been killed.
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