The UN Security Council has demanded that Sudanese paramilitary forces call off their eight-week siege of El Fasher, a town in the Darfur region where fighting has led to genocide.
Sudan’s army has been fighting the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for more than a year, in a civil war that has killed thousands of people and driven millions from their homes.
El Fasher is the last major urban center in Darfur still in the hands of the Sudanese army.
The Security Council has called for “an immediate cessation of fighting” and the withdrawal of all troops from the city.
The 15-member council adopted a British-drafted resolution on Thursday by 14 votes in favor, with Russia abstaining.
“Serious concerns” were expressed about the spreading violence and credible reports that the RSF is committing “ethnically motivated violence” in the town of El Fasher.
In a statement, the council called on rival forces to “seek an immediate cessation of hostilities, leading to a lasting resolution of the conflict, through dialogue.”
The resolution called on all parties to allow civilians wishing to leave El Fasher to do so and to remove obstacles to humanitarian access.
British UN envoy Barbara Woodward told the council that “an attack on the city would be catastrophic for the 1.5 million people sheltering in the city”.
“Today this council has sent a strong signal to the parties to the conflict. This brutal and unjust conflict must end,” she added.
Louis Charbonneau of Human Rights Watch said the resolution “puts the Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces on notice that the world is watching.”
The Security Council also urged member states to refrain from outside interference and demanded compliance with the arms embargo on the country.
El Fashir’s last functioning hospital has been forced to close after an attack on the facility.
More than 130,000 residents fled the city due to the fighting between April and May, the UN said.
UN experts warn that the Darfur region faces a growing risk of genocide as world attention focuses on conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.
Rights groups in Darfur have accused the RSF of using rape as a weapon of war and are targeting dark-skinned Masalit people and other non-Arab groups in a campaign of ethnic cleansing.
But the RSF says it is not involved in what it describes as a “tribal conflict” in Darfur.
Several rounds of peace talks have failed to end the war, which began when the two generals leading the army and the RSF fell out respectively.
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