Russia Vetoes Peace Resolution for Sudan

Summary: The United Nations drafted a resolution for peace in Sudan because paramilitary troops have waged war on civilians for 19 months, but Russia alone vetoed the draft.

Russia’s recent move to veto the draft of a United Nations Security Council Resolution for peace in war-torn Sudan has been met with condemnation. The other 14 Security Council members voted in favor of the draft on November 18, 2024.

The resolution draft called for an immediate end to the hostilities and to move toward de-escalation of the conflict with a ceasefire. Talks about a ceasefire have continued for months with no solution thus far.

David Lammy, British Foreign Secretary, stated that the veto was disgraceful and showed Russia’s true colors.

Russian officials believe that the UK has meddled in Sudanese affairs while excluding the Sudanese government, therefore violating their sovereignty. Russia’s representative, Dmitry Polyanskiy, accused the UK of having a double standard; they do not intervene in Israel’s ongoing genocide and human rights violations in Gaza, but they want a peace deal in Sudan.

The 19-month civil war  has destroyed many parts of the country including the capital, Khartoum, and the people of Sudan have faced starvation, famine, homelessness, sexual violence, and killings motivated by ethnic division. The International Organization for Migration has estimated that over 13 million people fled their homes due to the fighting, including roughly 3 million who have fled as refugees. Upwards of 25 million people need humanitarian aid, particularly food aid, which makes it the largest humanitarian crises ever faced.

People have faced diseases due to unsafe living conditions and a lack of basic medical care, and widespread public health crises like the cholera outbreak  which continues to spread.

BBC reports that over 61,000 people have died in Khartoum state alone, which is much higher than the previous estimates. Tom Perriello, United States special envoy for Sudan, believes that as many as 150,000 people have been killed due to the civil war.

While international intervention stalls, the Rapid Support Forces (the RSF), continues to wage war on Sudanese civilians. The RSF is a paramilitary group of roughly 100,000 members which was once operated by the Sudanese government, but their actions in Sudan have been called crimes against humanity by Human Rights Watch.

The United Nations has not declared that the crisis in Sudan is a genocide, but the actions taken against civilians in Sudan falls in line with the definition of genocide which the United Nations decided upon and vowed to prevent and punish from 1948 onward.

This is a developing story.