French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot has forcefully called for an immediate ceasefire between Sudan’s warring factions, condemning the ethnic nature of abuses attributed to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitaries.
Paris specifically denounced the escalating crisis in the flashpoint city of El-Fasher, where widespread violence threatens thousands of civilians. Furthermore, this condemnation echoes a similar warning from the United Nations chief, showing mounting international concern.
“For the past few days, the situation has been worsening in Sudan with the fall of the city of El-Fasher in Darfur,” Jean-Noel Barrot told reporters on Monday. He continued, expressing fear “fuelled by a number of facts that seem to be established, of major abuses affecting tens of thousands of innocent people.” Barrot insisted that “Both belligerents must cease fire and comply with international humanitarian law to definitively end this tragedy.”
Atrocities and the International Response
Following an 18-month siege that included intense bombardment and starvation tactics, the paramilitary RSF seized control of the strategic city of El-Fasher on 26 October, which dislodged the army’s final major stronghold in Sudan’s crucial western Darfur region. Since the city’s fall, numerous alarming reports detail executions, sexual violence, looting, and abductions in and around the area where communications largely remain cut off.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) quickly responded, as the Office of the Prosecutor expressed its “grave concern” on Monday about atrocities committed within El-Fasher.
Significantly, the ICC warned that these documented acts “may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.” France strongly supports this stance, as a foreign ministry spokesman stated that France “strongly condemns the ethnic atrocities perpetrated by the RSF in El-Fasher, including summary executions, massacres, rapes, attacks on humanitarian workers, looting, abductions and forced displacement.” Consequently, more than 65,000 people have fled the city, while unfortunately tens of thousands remain trapped, according to the United Nations.
Urgent Call for Negotiations
UN chief Antonio Guterres intensified the global pressure on Tuesday, demanding a stop to the violence in Sudan and warning that the horrifying crisis in the country “is spiralling out of control.” He directly addressed the combatants, demanding the warring parties must “come to the negotiating table [and] bring an end to this nightmare of violence – now.”
Meanwhile, Barrot commended the diplomatic efforts of the so-called Quad group, comprising the US, Egypt, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia, to secure a lasting truce. Following these discussions, Sudan’s army-backed authorities confirmed they would meet on Tuesday to discuss a new US proposal for a comprehensive ceasefire.
The latest diplomatic discussions follow a serious escalation on the ground, with the RSF apparently preparing an assault on the central Kordofan region, which links Darfur with the capital, Khartoum.
