The United Nations Security Council has extended its Darfur arms embargo for only one month after Russia and China resisted a US proposal to expand the restrictions across Sudan, leaving the dispute over foreign weapons fuelling the war unresolved.
Resolution 2828 was adopted unanimously on Friday, renewing the existing sanctions until October 9 and extending the mandate of the UN Panel of Experts on Sudan until November 9.
The measures include an arms embargo covering Darfur, along with asset freezes and travel bans targeting sanctioned individuals. They were adopted under Chapter VII of the UN Charter.
Washington opted for the short technical extension after weeks of negotiations failed to secure agreement on a broader resolution covering the whole country, including military drones and related technology.
US Deputy Ambassador Jeffrey Bartos said the existing system, created more than two decades ago to address the Darfur conflict, was no longer sufficient for a war that has spread across Sudan.
He said a longer rollover of the existing arrangement was “not an option” and called on council members to use the coming month to negotiate substantive changes.
“Any member considering opposing an expansion of the arms embargo risks aiding those destroying Sudan,” US presidential adviser Massad Boulos said following the vote.
Washington says a countrywide embargo is needed to restrict the external weapons, financing and logistical support allowing the SAF and other armed parties to continue fighting.
Russia, however, openly aligned itself with the SAF-controlled authorities and declared that it would prevent any expansion of the restrictions.
Russian Deputy Ambassador Anna Evstigneeva said Moscow would not permit “even a hint” of broadening the sanctions, claiming the SAF currently held a battlefield advantage and required access to weapons to preserve state institutions.
China also opposed extending the embargo across Sudan, arguing that broader restrictions could weaken state authority and contribute to the country’s fragmentation.
The Port Sudan junta welcomed the failure to adopt the expanded measures. Its UN representative, Al-Harith Idriss, insisted that the SAF had a right to manufacture, obtain and retain weapons under the UN Charter’s provisions on self-defence.
SAF chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan had predicted before the vote that the US proposal would not pass, saying his authorities had lobbied friendly governments to oppose it.
TASIS backs equal nationwide restrictions
The Sudan Founding Alliance, or TASIS, previously endorsed a nationwide arms embargo provided that it applied equally throughout Sudan and covered military aircraft and drones.
TASIS spokesman Ahmed Tugud Lisan said the alliance supported comprehensive restrictions and accused the SAF of importing weapons for armed groups associated with Sudan’s former Islamist regime.
“The army imports weapons for the armed forces of the Islamic Movement, and therefore it is natural that it rejects the proposal,” Lisan said after Washington first presented its plan in August.
TASIS and RSF channels had not issued formal responses to Friday’s resolution by the time of publication. However, the one-month extension preserves the possibility of the broader embargo they have supported while giving Russia and the Port Sudan authorities additional time to resist it.
The vote therefore represents a temporary diplomatic reprieve for Burhan rather than the definitive defeat of Washington’s initiative.
The United States said it would continue pressing for changes to the sanctions regime, including broader grounds for sanctioning individuals responsible for conflict-related sexual violence, kidnapping for ransom and attacks on humanitarian workers.
Bartos also condemned the recent aerial attack on clearly marked World Food Programme trucks in South Kordofan, which destroyed more than 50 tonnes of humanitarian assistance.
Despite having existed for more than 20 years, the Darfur embargo has repeatedly been violated as weapons, drones and foreign fighters continue to enter the region.
Friday’s compromise keeps that limited system in place while postponing the central question until October: whether the Security Council will finally attempt to restrict the military supply networks sustaining Sudan’s nationwide war.
