US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield uncovered on Wednesday that her country is working with the UK to help the UN Security Council address the “atrocities” happening in Sudan.

Commenting on the long-awaited report on Sudan issued last week by the UN Panel of Experts, the ambassador hinted to US efforts to pass a new resolution calling for a ceasefire and for a weapon embargo.

Thomas-Greenfield described events happening in the Arab-African country as “52 pages of stomach-churning findings. Atrocity after atrocity after atrocity, laid out in horrifying detail.”

She noted that schools, hospitals, markets, government buildings and humanitarian assets were looted mostly by Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, and his allied militias.

“Women and girls, some as young as 14 years old, were raped by RSF elements in World Food Program storage facilities controlled by RSF,” she said, adding that RSF placed snipers on the main roads who indiscriminately targeted civilians, including women, pregnant women and young people.

Thomas-Greenfield said the report also includes gruesome photos taken in West Darfur, where the RSF has targeted members of the Masalit community.

She said the report represents only a snapshot of the death, destruction, depravity that has defined this conflict. “A conflict that, as this report details, is being fueled by arms transfers from a handful of regional powers. Armed transfers that must stop,” the ambassador added.

Thomas-Greenfield then recalled her trip last fall to Adré, Chad where more than 150,000 Sudanese refugees live.
“I met people who had barely made it out of Sudan alive, who had lost everything, and who had given up hope. And I visited with children who were severely malnourished, whose eyes were dull, who were too weak to even cry.”

She added, “It was one of the darkest days of my life.”

The ambassador then affirmed that Washington will continue to work with leaders of the African Union, East Africa and the Gulf “to push in the Security Council, which has been shamefully quiet thus far, to say more, and more importantly, to do more.”

Asked whether the US backs a weapon embargo when it comes to Sudan, she said, “We have been clear to all of the parties who are supplying weapons that they should cease supplying those weapons.”

The US representative said Washington is looking at what it can do in the Security Council in this regard, adding that the UK has the pen on that. “But we’re certainly looking at how the resolution can help us address the situation on the ground, including calling for a ceasefire,” she added.