Pakistan calls for end to external interference in Sudan

UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan urged the UN Security Council to act “with unity and resolve” to secure a ceasefire, as the fall of El Fasher — capital of Sudan’s North Darfur region — to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group deepened the country’s turmoil.

“The people of Sudan have endured unimaginable suffering for far too long,” Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, permanent representative of Pakistan to the United Nations, told the UN Security Council when it met in an urgent session to discuss the sharp deterioration in the situation in Darfur region.

“It is time for this Council to send an unambiguous message that it will not remain a passive spectator while innocent civilians are massacred, hospitals are bombed, and aid workers are targeted with impunity,” the Pakistani envoy said.

Pakistan, he added, condemns, “in the strongest possible terms”, RSF’s atrocities and its violent takeover of El Fasher.

“We are appalled by the killing of hundreds of patients and health workers at the Saudi Maternity Hospital and by the continued siege that has trapped thousands of civilians in inhumane conditions, the Pakistani envoy said, adding, “These heinous acts must stop immediately, and the perpetrators and their sponsors must be held fully accountable.”

Ambassador Asim Ahmad said, “For over two decades, we have witnessed a tragedy unfolding in Sudan – complicated by external interference and geo-politics”.

The Security Council’s perceived lack of full support for the Sudanese Government only emboldens RSF and prolongs the conflict, creating a vacuum that armed groups exploit to commit further atrocities and destabilize the region, he said.

Voicing support for Sudan’s sovereignty, the Pakistani envoy unequivocally condemned the establishment of any so-called “parallel governance structures”, which undermine State institutions and risk fragmenting the country.

Ambassador Asim Ahmad said the guns must fall silent, and external interference stop.

Notably, Sudan’s conflict erupted in April 2023 following a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF. What began as a contest for control has devolved into ethnic violence, urban siege warfare, mass displacement, and famine-like conditions across the country.