UAE renews call for peace in Sudan as war enters third year

The UAE has reiterated the urgent call for peace in Sudan as the devastating war enters the third year, leaving more than 30 million people in need of urgent assistance.

In a statement released on national news agency Wam, Lana Nusseibeh, UAE Assistant Minister for Political Affairs, described the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Sudan as among the "world’s most severe".

Atrocities continue to be committed by both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), she said.

"The SAF’s continued offensives - marked by starvation tactics, indiscriminate bombardment of populated areas, reprisals against civilians, including emergency response room workers, and the reported use of chemical weapons - have inflicted unimaginable suffering on a civilian population already on the brink of collapse.

"The UAE condemns these atrocities unequivocally and calls for accountability.

"The UAE also strongly condemns recent attacks on civilians in Darfur, including the brutal assaults on the Zamzam and Abu Shouk camps near El Fasher, which resulted in hundreds of deaths and injuries.

"All parties to the conflict must halt the deliberate targeting of humanitarian workers and the indiscriminate shelling of schools, markets, and hospitals."

The UAE, Nusseibeh added, calls for immediate action on three fronts - a ceasefire, unhindered access to humanitarian aid and global action to facilitate a political process.

"The guns must fall silent. The UAE urges both the SAF and RSF to agree to an immediate, permanent and unconditional ceasefire and come to the negotiating table in good faith. There can be no military solution - only a political one that reflects the will of the Sudanese people," Nusseibeh added in her statement. 

She urged both parties to "allow immediate, safe, and urgent access for humanitarian organisations to reach those in desperate need across Sudan" and called on the "UN to prevent warring parties from using humanitarian aid for military or political purposes". 

Calling on the "international community (to) act urgently to facilitate a political process", Nusseibeh stressed that a "civilian-led, independent government" is the only "legitimate leadership" that can "represent the people of Sudan and lay the foundation for lasting peace".

"The world cannot allow Sudan to spiral further into chaos, extremism, and fragmentation," she asserted. 

Since the outbreak of the conflict, the UAE has provided more than $600 million in humanitarian aid to Sudan and neighbouring countries - including through UN agencies, impartially, based on need and without discrimination.

"The time for action is now. The killing must stop," Nusseibeh emphasised. 

"Sudan’s future must be built on peace, justice, and civilian leadership, independent from military control - not on the ambitions of those who seek to prolong war at the expense of their own people."