(CN) — The murder of a regional governor in Sudan appeared as a stark symbol this week that the conflict has devolved seemingly fully beyond control of the U.S. and other international players.
Sudan's Army and the paramilitary known as Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been at war since April 15 in a power struggle that derailed a Western-brokered transition to democracy and civilian rule and threatens to destabilize the region.
The U.S. has imposed sanctions and the State Department has routinely said it is privately in contact with representatives from the two factions, but those measures haven’t translated to more than occasional ceasefires that are regularly violated by both sides.
“We have been extremely disappointed by the actions of the two parties,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Thursday. “We continue to stand by the people of Sudan and urge the parties to end the fighting immediately.”
The violence was on display Tuesday when West Darfur Governor Khamis Abdullah Abkar was killed hours after accusing the RSF and its allies of genocide. Abkar also criticized the army for not protecting civilians in the war-torn western region, an area that’s seen ethnic genocide since the turn of the century.
“Civilians are being killed randomly and in large numbers,” he told Al Hadath TV. “We haven’t seen the army leave its base to defend people.”
The RSF has denied that it is directly responsible for the assassination, although it holds much territory in the region. The Sudan Conflict Observatory, created by the U.S. in coordination with other governments to provide public information monitoring the conflict, assessed Abkar’s death as “an extrajudicial killing highly likely perpetrated by RSF.” The United Nations also assigned blame to the RSF.
Fighting has been fiercest in the capital of Khartoum, but Darfur, where the RSF and army have been accused of backing rival armed groups, has seen increasing violence. The State Department cited estimates that 1,100 civilians have been killed in the city of El Geneina alone.
Miller condemned “reports of widespread sexual violence and killings based on ethnicity in West Darfur by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied militia.”
“The Sudan Conflict Observatory and media outlets have documented satellite imagery of sections of El Geneina and whole settlements in West, South and North Darfur states razed to the ground by marauding forces, which credible Sudanese voices claim is part of an emerging pattern of targeted ethnic violence against non-Arab populations,” he said in a statement Thursday evening. “Women are bearing the brunt of this violence, and victims and human rights groups have credibly accused soldiers of the RSF and allied militias of rape and other forms of conflict-related sexual violence.”
As for the army, the State Department noted that it has “failed to protect civilians and has reportedly stoked conflict by encouraging mobilization of tribes.”
“Both sides must cease fighting in the area, control their forces, and hold accountable those responsible for violence or abuses, and enable delivery of desperately needed humanitarian assistance,” Miller said in a statement.
The State Department estimates that 840,000 people have been displaced within Sudan, and another 250,000 have fled the country since fighting broke out on April 15. Some estimates put the death toll around 1,800, but it’s likely higher.
Unicef reported that more than 330 children have been killed and more than 1,900 injured as of June 6.
“The future of Sudan is at stake, and we cannot accept the continued loss and suffering of its children,” Mandeep O’Brien, Unicef representative in Sudan, said in a press release Thursday. “Children are trapped in an unrelenting nightmare, bearing the heaviest burden of a violent crisis they had no hand in creating — caught in the crossfire, injured, abused, displaced and subjected to disease and malnutrition.”
The U.S. and Saudi Arabia were coordinating negotiations in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, but the Sudanese army pulled out of the process on May 31 and hasn’t returned. Miller highlighted the ceasefires that have been achieved in those talks and said, “We continue to consider other steps moving forward.”
“One of our messages has been all along, both directly to the two parties and we’ve said this publicly a number of times, that there is no military solution to this conflict,” he said at Thursday’s briefing. “The Jeddah talks that were taking place provided a face-to-face opportunity to have a dialogue. We strongly urged the parties to take advantage of that.”
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