French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot has called for a ceasefire between the warring parties in Sudan, with Paris denouncing the ethnic nature of the abuses attributed to the RSF paramilitaries, particularly in the flashpoint city of El-Fasher.
"For the past few days, the situation has been worsening in Sudan with the fall of the city of El-Fasher in Darfur and with the fear, fuelled by a number of facts that seem to be established, of major abuses affecting tens of thousands of innocent people," French foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot told the press on Monday.
"Both belligerents must cease fire and comply with international humanitarian law to definitively end this tragedy," he insisted.
After 18 months of siege, bombardment and starvation, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized control of the strategic city of El-Fasher on 26 October, dislodging the army's last stronghold in Sudan's western Darfur region.
Since then reports have emerged of executions, sexual violence, looting, attacks on aid workers and abductions in and around El-Fasher, where communications remain largely cut off.
The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) also expressed its "grave concern" on Monday about the abuses and atrocities committed in the city of El-Fasher, and warned that such acts "may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity."
UN warns of ethnically motivated 'atrocities' in Sudan's El-Fasher
According to the United Nations, more than 65,000 people have fled the city, including around 5,000 to the nearby town of Tawila, but tens of thousands remain trapped.
"France strongly condemns the ethnic atrocities perpetrated by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in El-Facher, including summary executions, massacres, rapes, attacks on humanitarian workers, looting, abductions and forced displacement," a French foreign ministry spokesman said.
'Spiralling out of control'
This statement echoes that of UN chief Antonio Guterres, who on Tuesday also called for a halt to the violence in Sudan and warned the crisis in the country was rapidly worsening.
Warring parties need to "come to the negotiating table [and] bring an end to this nightmare of violence – now," Guterres said, adding "the horrifying crisis in Sudan... is spiralling out of control".
Barrot commended the efforts on the diplomatic front of the so-called Quad group – comprising the United States, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia – to secure a truce in the more than 30-month conflict in Sudan.
Sudan's army-backed authorities said they would meet on Tuesday to discuss a new US proposal for a ceasefire.
In September, the four powers proposed a three-month humanitarian truce, followed by a permanent ceasefire and a nine-month transition to civilian rule, but the army-aligned government immediately rejected the plan at the time.
Sudan's brutal war needs 'more than battlefield wins' after US peace push
US President Donald Trump sent an envoy to Africa for talks in Egypt on Sunday with Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty and then on Monday with the Arab League.
During the talks, Abdelatty stressed "the importance of concerted efforts to reach a humanitarian truce and a ceasefire throughout Sudan, paving the way for a comprehensive political process in the country", according to a foreign ministry statement.
According to the Arab League, Boulos met the regional body's chief Ahmed Aboul-Gheit and briefed him on recent US efforts in Sudan to "halt the war, expedite aid delivery and initiate a political process".
The latest discussions follow an escalation on the ground, with the RSF appearing to prepare an assault on the central Kordofan region, linking the vast western region of Darfur with Khartoum, the capital.
(with newswires)
