Sudan

Top Sudanese officials are on an official visit to Saint Petersburg, with sources telling Middle East Eye that controversial plans for a Russian naval installation on Sudan's Red Sea coast were going ahead. 

Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes in a displacement camp in the city of El Fasher in Sudan’s Darfur region after attacks by the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group, as concern grows that Darfur is facing another genocide. 

The UN special adviser on the prevention of genocide warned Tuesday that Sudan exhibits all the risk signs of genocide, and it may already have been committed.

The UN’s top human rights official has personally intervened to try to stop spiralling violence in Sudan that’s having a terrifying impact on millions of civilians, who humanitarians say are “staring famine in the face”.

The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on two commanders of Sudan's paramilitary force, vowing pressure to stop the unit from an offensive on the Darfur city of el-Fasher.

A deadly battle for control of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, has entered its fourth day, raising fears of a full-blown war. The clashes between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and a combined force of the Sudanese army and allied armed movements have resulted in a growing number of civilian casualties.

UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, warned that “time is running out” as famine, disease and fighting close in on the population “and there’s no end in sight”.

UN agencies issued a joint warning on Friday that time is running out to prevent starvation in Sudan’s Darfur region due to intensifying clashes around the northern capital of El Fasher, which are hindering efforts to deliver lifesaving aid.

Discussions between Sudan and Russia last week in Port Sudan covered political support, economic and military cooperation, with Russia offering “uncapped” military assistance to the Sudanese army.

The United States on Monday implored all countries supplying weapons to Sudan’s warring parties to halt arms sales, warning that history in the vast western Darfur region where there was a genocide 20 years ago “is repeating itself.”