Over the weekend, Sudanese rebels said they captured the key state capital of Singa in Sudan’s southeast, another grim milestone in fighting that has raged since April of last year. That’s when the Sudanese Armed Forces, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, went to war with a paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Experts at the United Nations who monitor global hunger say the country is spiraling into a famine on a scale not seen in decades.
To understand the situation, The World’s host Marco Werman spoke with US ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield.
Marco Werman: What is the US is doing about the conflict?
Amb. Linda Thomas-Greenfield: The humanitarian situation there is the most dire in the world. This means that we have to ramp up our efforts to ramp up our engagements first to respond to the humanitarian situation. The US has given, most recently, about $315 million toward that effort. Secondly, we have to find a diplomatic solution. Getting the two parties to sit down at the table to have a ceasefire and figure out a path forward to stop the suffering.
Right. And on the diplomacy front, the US seems to be organizing peace talks, but so far they’ve failed. Why is that? Who or what do you blame?
Look, we have worked very, very closely with all of the parties in the region in the early Jeddah talks that did not succeed. But we are continuing to engage with the parties in the region. As you know, we have assigned the new special envoy, Tom Perriello, who has been working diligently with countries in the region to push forward more discussions that will bring the two parties to the table. Burhan refused to engage in the latest peace talks, and we have to continue to pressure him, as well as pressure the RSF to cease their attack on Al Fashir, which is causing so much misery for the people of Sudan.
This is the most dire crisis in the world, you said. But evidently the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine come first on the diplomatic agenda. Isn’t the unfortunate reality that Sudan is far down the list of US and global priorities?
Look, we can’t prioritize misery and we can’t prioritize pain. And what is happening in Sudan is as significant as what is happening in Gaza and what is happening in Ukraine. So, we’re focusing on all of it. You may recall that we passed a resolution calling for the situation in Al Fashir to cease on the same day, the same week that we had a resolution on the peace deal in Gaza. So, we’re not sacrificing one crisis for another. And I do appreciate your actually engaging with me today on Sudan, because part of the issue is getting the press, the international press, to pay attention to what is happening in Sudan. And we will continue to ramp up our efforts to ensure that this crisis not be forgotten.
Leaders of humanitarian groups have accused world leaders of “going through the motions” of expressing concern over Sudan but failing to stop the violence and starvation. What can you point to that Washington has done that’s been effective in addressing this catastrophe in Sudan?
Look, first and foremost, we have sanctioned a number of the parties who’ve been engaged in this fight on both sides. We have insisted in our engagements at the UN that other member states impose sanctions. And then, of course, the humanitarian assistance, we’re the leader there, and we’re encouraging other countries to provide humanitarian assistance. So, we have not forgotten Sudan. And I do want to use this opportunity to encourage others to give to this humanitarian crisis. People are starving, people are dying, and we have to keep pressuring parties in the region to put pressure on the two sides to cease the fighting.
If we look at why this war keeps on going, we can look at the United Arab Emirates, which is the biggest foreign sponsor of the Rapid Support Forces, the RSF, who are behind much of the violence in Sudan. The UAE is also a US ally, but the UAE is reportedly disguising its weapons shipments as humanitarian aid. What is the Biden administration doing to call out the UAE for fueling the crisis in Sudan?
We have directly engaged with the UAE at every level possible. We have called for an end to their support, and we’ve urged them to use their influence to press the parties to agree to a ceasefire. And we’ve made clear that the provision of arms to either side, because it’s not just what is being provided to the RSF, weapons are being provided to the national army as well, the SAF. And so, it’s important that weapons being provided to fuel this war stop being provided, and that we look at what we can do to get the two sides to sit down at the negotiating table.
So, if we go back to January of 2022, a year and a half before the attacks on Israel and then the war in Gaza, even before Ukraine had consumed US attention, when Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok of Sudan, that brief period when it seemed democracy might have a chance there, Hamdok resigned and told the world he saw the country sliding to disaster. I want to ask you, what was the US preparing for back then?
We were preparing to support Hamdok. We were supporting the civilian-run government. We were encouraging that government, so I have to say, we were extraordinarily disappointed when he felt that he had to resign. And we kept the pressure on the then-national army before they broke their discussions with the RSF to go back to supporting a civilian-led government. Clearly, we did not get there, but it was not through lack of trying.
Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield, one last question. Early in your diplomatic career, 30 years ago, you were in Rwanda when the genocide began there. There continues to be reflection among many, including US policymakers, and I suspect you’re one of them, why more wasn’t done to stop the killing there. Do you expect you’ll look back at Sudan with the same regrets?
No I don’t. I think we have been extraordinarily proactive to push back on the warring parties. I think that was missing in Rwanda that many years ago, where I was sitting in the middle of this. I don’t think that we will have that same sense. But that said, the suffering that we see happening in Sudan right now is worthy of all of our attention. We have not avoided calling this what this is, a genocide in the making, and we’ve not avoided putting pressure on the two sides to in the conflict. So, I do see this in a completely different light.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
Related: Journalist says parts of Sudan’s capital are now ‘almost unrecognizable’
Sign up for our daily newsletter