The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday extended an arms embargo on Sudan’s vast Darfur region, a measure whose violations are frequently reported.

In its unanimously adopted decision, the SA extended until September 12, 2025 the sanctions regime applied since 2005 and which concerns only Darfur: measures at the level of persons (freezing of resources, travel restrictions) which now only concern three persons, and embargo on sales of military hardware.

“The people of Darfur continue to live in danger and despair (…) This adoption sends an important message that the international community continues to focus on their plight,” commented the deputy US ambassador to the United Nations. Nations, Robert Wood.

And, although the sanctions do not concern the whole of the country, their renewal “will limit the flow of arms to Darfur” and will “help” Sudan get back “on the road to stability and security”, he estimated.

In Sudan, a war has been raging since mid-April 2023 between the Sudanese armed forces, under General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), under General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, the number two in the military. junta until the outbreak of armed conflict.

The conflict has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people and turned more than 10 million others into internally displaced persons and refugees, according to the UN.

The United Nations and humanitarian organizations are expressing concern that the war is devolving into new ethnic cleansing, especially in Darfur, which already suffered more than 20 years ago from the scorched-earth politics of the Janjaweed — the Arab militias now reincarnated in the WFD .

Jean-Baptiste Gallopin of Human Rights Watch (HRW) spoke of a “missed opportunity” on the part of the Security Council, renewing his call to extend the arms embargo to all of Sudan.

While the Sudanese military regime has always called for the UN sanctions to be lifted, China and Russia, which had opted to abstain last time they were renewed in March 2023, this time voted in favor.

Because they can “partially stop the unstoppable flow of weapons to the battlefield”, assessed the Chinese deputy ambassador Dai Bing, reminding however that the sanctions are “not an end”, but a means, and in any case they cannot “replace the diplomacy”.

In their annual report released in January, experts mandated by the SA to monitor compliance with the sanctions regime denounced violations of the arms embargo, naming several countries, including the United Arab Emirates, accusing them of arming WMDs.

The Sudanese ambassador to the United Nations, Al Harith Idris Al Harith Mohamed, judged that the continuation of the embargo is causing an “imbalance” of power in Darfur and yesterday again accused the UAE of “playing a key role in the continuation of this crisis”.

The charge was rejected by his UAE counterpart, Mohammed Isa Hamad Mohammed Abushahab, calling it a “cynical attempt to divert attention” from the weaknesses and misdeeds of the Sudanese armed forces.