United Nations –

A senior U.S. official has urged countries to stop supplying Sudan’s rival generals with weapons used in the civil war, saying the weapons are fueling “death, destruction and degradation.”

“As this report details, arms transfers by a handful of regional powers are exacerbating conflicts and must stop,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters on Wednesday.

She spoke about the final report of the five-member Panel of Experts on Sudan, which is mandated by the Security Council to report on the implementation of Council sanctions. The report was released this week.

Thomas-Greenfield called the report’s findings “stomach-turning” and said it detailed “atrocity after atrocity.”

Fighting broke out last April between Sudan’s army chief of staff, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The two generals were allies of Sudan’s transitional government after the 2021 coup but later became rivals for power.

The 52-page report, completed in mid-January, said both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the rebel Rapid Support Forces had enough money to fund their wars, noting that they controlled much of Sudan’s gold trade.

While the Sudanese Armed Forces went to war in good economic shape, the panel found that the group has lost control of some key economic sectors and companies and now relies heavily on wealthy businessmen to buy military equipment for its troops.

Doctors Without Borders funds its operations in part by charging people for safe passage and protecting convoys passing through areas it controls in Sudan’s Darfur region, where much fighting has taken place.

Médecins Sans Frontières has also developed new supply routes for its fighters, smuggling weapons, ammunition, fuel and vehicles into Sudan through eastern Chad, southern Libya and South Sudan.

The panel found that starting in July, Médecins Sans Frontières began using several heavy and sophisticated weapons that were not available at the start of the war.

“MSF’s new firepower has a dramatic impact on the balance of power in Darfur and other parts of Sudan,” the team wrote. “The new heavy artillery allowed MSF to quickly capture Nyala and El Geneina. , and its new air defense installations help counter the Sudanese Armed Forces’ main asset, its air force.”

The group said that since June, flight tracking experts have observed a large number of cargo planes departing from Abu Dhabi International Airport in the United Arab Emirates arriving at Amjarras International Airport in eastern Chad and stopping in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. They said they had gathered information that confirmed media reports that the plane was carrying weapons, ammunition and medical equipment from Médecins Sans Frontières.

Experts contacted the UAE for response. The government denies involvement in any transfers of arms and ammunition and says its flights carry humanitarian aid to displaced Sudanese.

A similar request from the Group to Chad went unanswered.

In December, Sudan’s envoy to the United Nations asked the Security Council to lift sanctions on government forces and impose an arms embargo on the rebels.

“If we really want to maintain peace and security in Darfur, we need to exclude the armed forces from the embargo that has been in place since 2004,” Ambassador Haris Idris Mohammed said at the time.

Experts say that the Sudanese Armed Forces have carried out aerial bombardments and violent shelling of urban areas in Darfur, causing a large-scale humanitarian crisis.

The United Nations human rights office said at least 14,600 people were killed and 26,000 injured, but the actual death toll was likely higher. Experts reported that at least 10,000 to 15,000 people were killed in El Geneina alone.

Experts detailed horrific acts of conflict-related sexual violence, in particular that perpetrated by Forces Without Borders in Darfur, often targeting women and girls aged 9 to 75, often from Maldives. Salit Community. Médecins Sans Frontières snipers also indiscriminately target civilians, including pregnant women and young people, whose bodies are often left to rot on roads for fear of being targeted when retrieving them, the team said.

On Wednesday, the World Food Program warned that the war could trigger the world’s worst hunger crisis, with 25 million people in Sudan, South Sudan and Chad “trapped in a vicious cycle of worsening food security.”

Humanitarian workers are unable to provide adequate food to civilians due to insecurity and interference from warring parties. According to the WFP, 90% of Sudan’s population facing emergency hunger live in hard-to-reach areas.

The UN Secretary-General will brief the Security Council on Thursday when it convenes a Security Council meeting on Sudan.

Read the full report from the UN panel here.