Pax Christi International calls for immediate action to protect civilians in Sudan

Source: Pax Christi USA

The situation in Sudan is horrific as the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) takes control of Darfur -- widespread starvation, sexual assault, and mass executions are just a few of the atrocities being reported. The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect writes about El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur: "Entire neighbourhoods have been destroyed, hospitals reduced to rubble and humanitarian access completely severed. Tens of thousands of civilians are now at imminent risk of mass killings and ethnic cleansing." Use this link read updates from Al-Jazeera.

Read Sudan: World's worst humanitarian crisis, a report from the workshop offered this summer at the Pax Christi USA national conference in Detroit.

The following statement is shared from our colleagues at Pax Christi International.

Pax Christi International joins the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect in its urgent appeal to the international community to act decisively to end the ongoing violence in Sudan. Guided by our shared commitment to human dignity, nonviolence and justice, we echo the call for immediate measures to protect civilians and to work toward a just and lasting peace.

We therefore call upon the international community to urgently:

• Call on the UN Security Council, particularly Sierra Leone, Somalia, Algeria and Russia, as well as the African Union and the Arab - - League, to take up their moral and political responsibility to craft a robust resolution with concrete, life-saving measures to protect civilians and advance a sustainable peace.
  - Urge the United Arab Emirates to use its influence with all parties in Sudan to halt attacks on civilians, uphold international humanitarian and human rights law, and refrain from providing material, financial or political support to the RSF.
  - Enhance oversight and tracking of weapons sold to the UAE to ensure they are not diverted for use in atrocities.
  - Demand and explore peaceful, nonviolent ways to enforce an immediate cessation of hostilities in and around El Fasher and other conflict hotspots.
  - Unequivocally condemn deliberate attacks on civilians, and make clear to the RSF and its supporters that all civilians in, around, or attempting to flee El Fasher must be protected.
  - Develop diplomatic strategies to overcome barriers to humanitarian access, including flexible funding for rapid procurement of essential items, transport and emergency supplies, and creative approaches to accelerate aid delivery to communities trapped in El Fasher.
  - Halt the transfer of arms and financial support to parties to the conflict.
  
  - Every government, every leader, and every institution possesses both the capacity and the moral responsibility to act. Whether through principled diplomacy, humanitarian assistance, or the steadfast witness of nonviolence, there remain concrete paths to bring relief and to restore hope.

Silence and inaction are not neutral. In the face of such suffering, they become complicit. We must choose the path of peace, justice, and the protection of life.

US readers: Tell Congress to speak out against genocide in Sudan. Use this link: https://fcnl.quorum.us/campaign/145575/. from Friends Committee on National Legislation to send a message to your members of Congress reminding them that the United States has a moral duty to protect civilians facing genocide and urging them to speak out against the genocide in Sudan and the attacks in El Fasher.