Khartoum - New York: Europe and the Arabs
After Russia used its veto, the UN Security Council failed to adopt a resolution on Sudan calling on the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces to fully respect and implement their obligations in the Jeddah Declaration on the protection of civilians, including taking all feasible precautions to avoid and minimize harm to civilians. According to the daily UN news bulletin, which we received a copy of on Tuesday morning, it also stated, "As soon as the Security Council meeting began to vote on the draft resolution, the French ambassador requested closed consultations among the members to resolve their differences on the draft resolution to ensure its adoption. The President of the Council, the British Ambassador, proposed suspending the meeting for consultation, and this was decided after no opposition was expressed by the members.

After several minutes of consultation, the members returned to the Security Council chamber and the vote was held on the draft resolution - submitted by Sierra Leone and the United Kingdom. The draft received the support of 14 members of the 15 Security Council members. The Council was unable to adopt the resolution due to the use of the veto by the Russian Federation - one of the five permanent members of the Council.

The draft resolution condemns the continued attacks by the Rapid Support Forces in El Fasher and demands that they immediately cease all attacks against civilians in Darfur, Al-Jazeera and Sennar states and elsewhere. The draft also called on the parties to the conflict to immediately cease hostilities and enter - in good faith - into a dialogue to agree on steps to de-escalate the conflict and urgently agree on a nationwide ceasefire.

After the vote, British Foreign Secretary David Lamy - whose country is responsible for The rotating presidency of the Security Council - Sudanese civilians have suffered unimaginable violence during the war and this suffering is a scar on the collective conscience.

Speaking in his national capacity, he added: “In the face of these horrors, the United Kingdom and Sierra Leone have worked to bring this Council together to address this humanitarian crisis and catastrophe, to protect civilians, ensure humanitarian access and call for a ceasefire. One country has stood in the way of the Council speaking with one voice. One country is the obstructionist and the enemy of peace. The Russian veto is a disgrace and shows the world once again the true face of Russia.”
Lamy was delivering his speech, directing scathing criticism at Russia, while the Russian Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations was checking his mobile phone. The British minister went on to say of Russian President Vladimir Putin: “Shame on Putin for waging a war of aggression against Ukraine. Shame on Putin for using his mercenaries to spread conflict and violence across the African continent.”

Dmitry Polyansky, the Russian Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations, began his speech by thanking the Council President, the British Foreign Secretary, for what he described as an excellent display of British neo-colonialism. He said that anyone who heard his speech understood why the United Kingdom was losing its influence and power, as he put it.
Explaining Russia’s vote against the draft resolution, he said that his country agrees with all members of the council on the need for an urgent solution to the conflict in Sudan and that the only solution is for the warring parties to agree to a ceasefire.

Polyansky added: “We believe that the role of the Security Council is to help (the two parties) achieve this, but this must be done in a consistent and open manner, and not to impose on the Sudanese - through a Security Council resolution - the opinion of its individual members, seasoned with post-colonial tendencies, about what the future state should look like.”

He said that the main problem in the “British draft resolution” is the “misunderstanding” of who bears responsibility for protecting civilians in Sudan, securing and controlling the borders, who should make the decision to invite foreign forces to the country, and with whom UN officials should cooperate to address the existing problems.

He added: “We have no doubt that only the Government of Sudan should play this role, but the drafters of the British draft resolution are clearly trying to deprive Sudan of this right. During all stages of work on the draft resolution, they made a lot of effort to remove from the draft any mention of the legitimate authority of Sudan in any of the main points.”
Meanwhile, a new UN report has revealed alarming data indicating that 57 percent of the population in South Sudan will suffer from severe food insecurity during the 2025 dry season as returnees flee war in Sudan, and young children face some of the highest levels of hunger and malnutrition.
The World Food Programme said in a statement that the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification released on Monday showed that more than 85 percent of returnees fleeing Sudan will suffer from severe food insecurity during the upcoming dry season, starting in April.
According to the new classification, they will constitute nearly half of those facing catastrophic hunger, as they struggle to rebuild their lives amid an unprecedented economic crisis, severe flooding and prioritizing resources where needs exceed funding.
Meschack Malo, the country representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in South Sudan, said that the emergence of the economic crisis and the associated high food prices as a major driver of food insecurity sends a strong message that "it is time to collectively increase our investments in supporting the people of South Sudan to produce their own food." He added that this would not only reduce household food budgets, but would also create more jobs in the agricultural sector and increase household incomes so that they could seek healthier diets.