Sudan: UNSC -Closed Consultations, Coinciding with 2nd Anniversary of the Outbreak of War

New York, sudanhorizon

This afternoon (15 April East coast time, USA), Security Council members will convene for closed consultations on Sudan, at the request of Denmark, Slovenia, and the UK (who is the penholder on the file).
According to the official website of the UNSC, these consultations are expected to focus on the country’s humanitarian situation in light of recent attacks by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia on the town of Al Fashir and the Zamzam and Abu Shouk camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs), as well as on initiatives aimed at achieving a ceasefire and advancing political dialogue.
It is also expected that the Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General for Sudan Ramtane Lamamra and Director of the Operations and Advocacy Division at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Edem Wosornu are to brief the council.

Tuesday’s meeting takes place on the second anniversary of the conflict in Sudan, which began on 15 April 2023 and since then the security situation in Al Fashir and surrounding areas remains particularly alarming, as the city has been under siege by the RSF and allied Arab militias since May 2024.
The website pointed out in a lengthy article, that according to OCHA, RSF-affiliated forces launched coordinated ground and air assaults from multiple directions on Al Fashir and the Zamzam and Abu Shouk camps on 11 April, triggering intense clashes. On the 14th of April, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General Stéphane Dujarric reported that preliminary figures indicate that more than 300 civilians have been killed in the violence, including ten humanitarian personnel from the non-governmental organization Relief International, which operated one of the last functioning health centers in the Zamzam camp.
Further east, an RSF assault reportedly killed at least 56 civilians in the town of Um Kadadah, humanitarian conditions in the region were already dire prior to the most recent fighting, with famine conditions confirmed in the IDP camps near Al Fashir—which house more than 700,000 IDPs—and in several other areas across the country.
The report added that the Council members may wish to hear from Wosornu on how the conflict dynamics are impacting the humanitarian situation in the country and what measures can be taken to more effectively address the needs of civilians.
According to the report, the RSF’s actions have drawn widespread international concern and prompted renewed calls to protect civilians and end hostilities. Several countries—including Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the UK, and the US—issued statements condemning the recent escalation.
In today’s meeting, speakers are likely to echo Guterres’ statement. Some might call for the full implementation of relevant Council resolutions, including resolution 2736 of 13 June 2024, which demanded that the RSF halt the siege of Al Fashir. Some might condemn the parties’ continued disregard for international calls to cease hostilities.
Wosornu and several Council members are expected to underscore the urgent need for full, rapid, and sustained humanitarian access and highlight impediments to such access. Many members are likely to stress the parties’ international legal obligation to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, including healthcare facilities, as well as medical and humanitarian personnel, and condemn the deliberate targeting of these individuals and facilities.
The report indicates that since the onset of the conflict, over 90 humanitarian workers have been killed in Sudan, while the World Health Organization (WHO) has verified 156 attacks on healthcare facilities, resulting in 318 deaths.
Following recent battlefield gains, SAF General and head of the Sudanese Transitional Sovereign Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has ramped up diplomatic efforts to secure international support. On 28 March, he met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Mecca, where they announced an agreement to strengthen bilateral relations. On 8 April, Burhan met Egypt’s General Intelligence Chief Hassan Mahmoud Rashad in Port Sudan. On 10 April, he travelled to Asmara for discussions with Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. The following day (11 April), Burhan arrived in Türkiye to attend the Antalya Diplomacy Forum—an annual conference on international diplomacy—where he met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. On the sidelines of the conference, he also held bilateral meetings with leaders from Azerbaijan, Libya, and Sierra Leone.

On 9 April, Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan arrived in Washington DC to meet with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. According to a readout of the meeting, the ministers agreed that the SAF and the RSF “must return to peace talks, protect civilians, open humanitarian corridors, and return to civilian governance”.
In May, US President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations on his first foreign trip since assuming office again in January.
Today’s meeting coincides with a ministerial conference in London, which was jointly organised by France, Germany, the UK, and the European Union (EU) to mark the second anniversary of the conflict in Sudan. The conference convened 20 countries and multilateral organisations to discuss the drivers of the protracted crisis, mobilise international support to address the consequences of the conflict, promote a political solution, and enhance humanitarian access and response.
In a letter to UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy, however, Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Youssef formally protested the exclusion of the Sudanese government from the conference. In response, UK Special Representative to Sudan Richard Crowder reportedly said—following his 9 April meeting with Burhan in Port Sudan—that the conference is intended to support peace efforts and noted that no Sudanese political actors were invited.

Council members are currently negotiating a UK-authored draft press statement, which, among other things, condemns the attacks on Al Fashir as well as on Zamzam and Abu Shouk camps in recent days by the RSF.

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