NEW YORK CITY: The UK on Friday condemned drone strikes by the Rapid Support Forces, one of the warring military factions in Sudan, and accused the group and its rival, the Sudanese Armed Forces, of blocking life-saving aid while parts of Sudan’s Darfur region descend into famine.
Speaking ahead of a UN Security Council meeting to discuss the situation in Sudan, requested by Britain, Bahrain and Denmark, the UK’s deputy ambassador, James Kariuki, told reporters that the latest alert from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification warned of famine conditions in the Darfur towns of Um Baru and Kernoi.
“This is a devastating indictment of how the SAF and RSF continue to block life-saving aid,” he added.
The ways in which they are doing this include blocking trade routes, disrupting supply chains and restricting humanitarian access, Kariuki said. Such actions are deliberately exacerbating the crisis, he warned, and constitute violations of international humanitarian law under UN Security Council Resolution 2417.
“Starvation must never be used as a weapon of war,” he added.
