BRUSSELS, (chatnewstv) — European and allied foreign ministers on Wednesday condemned escalating drone and aerial attacks on civilians and humanitarian targets in Sudan’s Kordofan and Darfur regions, warning that strikes on aid convoys and health facilities may constitute war crimes and demanding an immediate halt to hostilities.
“We express grave concern over the continued deadly unlawful attacks on civilians, civilian infrastructure and humanitarian operations,” the ministers said in a joint statement, citing recent strikes on trucks and warehouses of the World Food Programme and on health facilities that killed and injured civilians and aid workers and destroyed critical supplies.
The signatories said intentional attacks on humanitarian personnel, vehicles and relief goods, or obstruction of aid delivery, violate international humanitarian law and “may amount to war crimes.”
They described Darfur and Kordofan as the epicenter of “the world’s largest humanitarian and protection crisis,” with rampant sexual and gender-based violence, confirmed famine conditions and widening hunger. Up to 100,000 people have been displaced in recent months in Kordofan alone, the statement said.
Citing Volker Türk, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, the ministers warned that violations attributed to the Rapid Support Forces and allied militias around El Fasher last October risk being repeated in Kordofan.
“We urgently repeat our call to the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces and their allied militias to immediately cease hostilities,” they said, adding that abuses against civilians — “particularly women and children” — must be promptly and impartially investigated and perpetrators held accountable.
All parties must allow “rapid, safe and unimpeded” humanitarian access and protect civilians and aid personnel at all times, including granting safe passage to those fleeing, the ministers said.
The statement was signed by foreign ministers and senior officials from more than two dozen countries, including Germany, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands, Finland, Norway, France, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Estonia, along with European Union and Swiss humanitarian officials.
