Madame Vice-President,
This statement is on behalf of the Core Group for Sudan: Germany, Norway, the USA, and the UK.
We welcome the Fact-Finding Mission's update ahead of its first report next session. The recent escalation of violence between the warring parties and their allied militias, including now in El Fasher and El-Gezira, demonstrates how crucial the Fact-Finding Mission's independent mandate is.
The Rapid Support Forces appear to be waging a campaign of ethnically motivated violence in Darfur, including sexual and gender-based violence. The parallels to 2003 grow more evident by the day.
Meanwhile, reportedly indiscriminate airstrikes by the Sudanese Armed Forces across North Darfur and wider Sudan continue to kill innocent civilians.
Both parties' collective actions, including the diversion of aid, border closures and bureaucratic obstructionism, are preventing life-saving humanitarian aid from reaching those in greatest need; as a result, an unprecedented five million people are now a step away from famine.
Madame Vice-President,
We fiercely condemn all these acts. This war must stop. The international community, including regional actors, the UN, the African Union and Intergovernmental Authority on Development, must use all its influence to urge the parties to resume peace talks, end the obstruction of cross-border and crossline humanitarian access, guarantee the safety of civilians, and promote peace and accountability in Sudan.
