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STORY: UN / SUDAN
TRT: 6:19
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ARABIC / ENGLISH / RUSSIAN / NATS
DATELINE: 19 DECEMBER 2024, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior, United Nations Headquarters
19 DECEMBER 2024, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Edem Wosornu, Director of Operations and Advocacy, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs:
“This is a crisis of staggering scale and cruelty. One that demands sustained and urgent attention.”
4. Wide shot, Security Council
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Edem Wosornu, Director of Operations and Advocacy, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs:
“First, unequivocal demand that the parties comply with international humanitarian law. The appalling civilian toll must end. Essential infrastructure and services must be spared. And sexual violence must be stopped. The recommendations in the Secretary-General’s October report on the protection of civilians in Sudan should be implemented in full.”
6. Wide shot, Security Council
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Edem Wosornu, Director of Operations and Advocacy, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs:
“Second, using your influence to ensure all humanitarian relief routes – road and air, across conflict lines and borders – are open. Bureaucratic impediments must be lifted and permits and visas for incoming personnel issued swiftly and efficiently. Humanitarian personnel and their assets must be protected. Third, money. In 2024, humanitarian organizations faced significant funding gaps. We call on donors to provide the $4.2 billion humanitarians need to support nearly 21 million people inside Sudan next year; and the $1.8 billion needed to support 5 million people – primarily refugees – in seven neighbouring countries.”
8. Wide shot, Security Council
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Shayna Lewis, Preventing and Ending Mass Atrocities (PAEMA) Senior Advisor and Sudan Specialist:
“There are some in this chamber who claim that any action by the UN to protect civilians would violate Sudan's sovereignty. Indeed, we had this argument when the Russian delegation vetoed the Sudan resolution last month. But sovereignty comes with responsibility. The responsibility to protect civilians. It is not a blank check to conduct war crimes if Sudan's de facto authorities are unwilling and unable to fulfill this paramount responsibility, this Council is required to act in accordance with its mandate.”
10. Wide shot, Security Council
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Shayna Lewis, Preventing and Ending Mass Atrocities (PAEMA) Senior Advisor and Sudan Specialist:
“I implore us all to not forget the future of Sudan. Over half of the displaced population are children, and hundreds of thousands are missing out on essential early childhood vaccinations. Nineteen million Sudanese children have not sat in a classroom since the outbreak of this war. And though the postponed national exams are due to take place on December the 28th, many will not be able to take them. We are at risk of losing an entire generation, and the world will not remember the geopolitical excuses. The world will remember the hundreds of thousands of lives lost the genocide that occurred on our watch. Yet, again.”
12. Wide shot, Security Council
13. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Saad Bahr el-Din, Sultan of the Masalit Council Members
“Owing to all this, thousands of people fled to camps in eastern Chad. They live in dire humanitarian conditions. Children are dying there from famine. The elderly have mostly died as a result of hunger, poverty, and the rest are suffering poverty and amnesia, and although some international organizations are present on the ground, the assistance that is being provided is not enough to meet the basic needs.”
14. Wide shot, Security Council
15. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Saad Bahr el-Din, Sultan of the Masalit Council Members
“We are human beings, and we were hoping to be treated like other refugees and other countries. Unfortunately, this is the situation, but we ask God that we find justice and that we will enjoy our equal rights on this planet. We hope that international organizations and the international community will give us our rights and will give us enough assistance to meet our daily needs and to face some of the hardships in order to reach hopefully, a dignified life.”
16. Wide shot, Security Council
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State, United States:
“Today, we're announcing an additional roughly $200 million more for food, for shelter, for health care, bringing total US support to more than $2.3 billion since fighting broke out last year.”
18. Wide shot, Security Council
19. SOUNDBITE (English) Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State, United States:
“This Council must press both warring parties to protect civilians, to stop atrocities, to end the fighting. The proposed a compliance mechanism, a committee with representation from the SAF and the RSF from the international community to ensure that each side upholds international law and their commitments under the Jeddah declaration.”
20. Wide shot, Security Council
21. SOUNDBITE (English) Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State, United States:
“The United States will use every tool, including further determinations and sanctions, to prevent abuses and hold perpetrators accountable.”
22. Wide shot, Security Council
23. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Vasily Nebenzya, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Russian Federation:
“We stress that we will continue to decisively suppress any attempts to encroach upon the sovereignty of this brotherly country. We’ll continue to prevent the adoption of one sided, non-viable solutions, which are geared towards keeping afloat political forces that have lost authority among the Sudanese people and which are geared towards implementation of plans that are at variance with realities on the ground.”
24. Wide shot, Security Council
25. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Al-Harith Idriss, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Sudan:
“We call for ending the flow of weapons to the militia, these weapons provided by the UAE and its regional partners. This is the only reason for the continuation of the conflict Therefore, we need to put an end to this blatant interference which violates the UN Charter and violates the sovereignty and national laws of our country, and run counter to the to maintaining international peace and security.”
24. Wide shot, Security Council
UN senior humanitarian official Edem Wosornu said the situation in Sudan is “a crisis of staggering scale and cruelty. One that demands sustained and urgent attention.”
The senior official at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) delivered the statement to the Council today (19 Dec) on behalf of the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher.
She presented three key asks of the Security Council, first is to “unequivocal demand that the parties comply with international humanitarian law.”
Wosornu said, “The appalling civilian toll must end. Essential infrastructure and services must be spared. And sexual violence must be stopped. The recommendations in the Secretary-General’s October report on the protection of civilians in Sudan should be implemented in full.”
Second, the UN humanitarian asked the Council member to use their influence to “ensure all humanitarian relief routes – road and air, across conflict lines and borders – are open.”
She said, “Bureaucratic impediments must be lifted and permits and visas for incoming personnel issued swiftly and efficiently. Humanitarian personnel and their assets must be protected.”
Third is funding as in 2024, humanitarian organizations faced significant funding gaps.
Wosornu called on donors to provide the $4.2 billion humanitarians need to support nearly 21 million people inside Sudan next year; and the $1.8 billion needed to support 5 million people – primarily refugees – in seven neighbouring countries.
For her part, Shayna Lewis, a Senior Advisor and Sudan Specialist at Preventing and Ending Mass Atrocities (PAEMA) said, “There are some in this chamber who claim that any action by the UN to protect civilians would violate Sudan's sovereignty. Indeed, we had this argument when the Russian delegation vetoed the Sudan resolution last month.”
However, She said, “sovereignty comes with responsibility. The responsibility to protect civilians. It is not a blank check to conduct war crimes if Sudan's de facto authorities are unwilling and unable to fulfill this paramount responsibility, this Council is required to act in accordance with its mandate.”
Lewis also said, “I implore us all to not forget the future of Sudan,” reiterating that “over half of the displaced population are children, and hundreds of thousands are missing out on essential early childhood vaccinations.”
She continued, “Nineteen million Sudanese children have not sat in a classroom since the outbreak of this war. And though the postponed national exams are due to take place on December the 28th, many will not be able to take them.”
“We are at risk of losing an entire generation,” the Sudan specialist warned, adding that “the world will not remember the geopolitical excuses. The world will remember the hundreds of thousands of lives lost the genocide that occurred on our watch. Yet, again.”
Saad Bahr el-Din, Sultan of the Masalit Council Members also spoke at the Council.
He described that thousands of people fled to camps in eastern Chad. “They live in dire humanitarian conditions. Children are dying there from famine. The elderly have mostly died as a result of hunger, poverty, and the rest are suffering poverty and amnesia, and although some international organizations are present on the ground, the assistance that is being provided is not enough to meet the basic needs,” the Sultan added.
“We are human beings, and we were hoping to be treated like other refugees and other countries.” He said, adding that “unfortunately, this is the situation.”
The Sultan called on international organizations and the international community to give Sudanese people rights and will them enough assistance to meet daily needs and to face some of the hardships in order to reach, hopefully, a dignified life.”
US, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken announced an additional roughly $200 million more for food, for shelter, for health care to Sudan, bringing total US support to more than $2.3 billion since fighting broke out last year.
Blinken highlighted, “This Council must press both warring parties to protect civilians, to stop atrocities, to end the fighting. The proposed a compliance mechanism, a committee with representation from the SAF and the RSF from the international community to ensure that each side upholds international law and their commitments under the Jeddah declaration.”
The Secretary of State said the United States will “use every tool, including further determinations and sanctions, to prevent abuses and hold perpetrators accountable.”
Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya stressed that his country will “continue to decisively suppress any attempts to encroach upon the sovereignty of this brotherly country.”
He said, “We’ll continue to prevent the adoption of one sided, non-viable solutions, which are geared towards keeping afloat political forces that have lost authority among the Sudanese people and which are geared towards implementation of plans that are at variance with realities on the ground.”
Sudanese Ambassador Al-Harith Idriss called for “ending the flow of weapons to the militia, these weapons provided by the UAE and its regional partners.”
“This is the only reason for the continuation of the conflict. Therefore, we need to put an end to this blatant interference which violates the UN Charter and violates the sovereignty and national laws of our country, and run counter to the to maintaining international peace and security,” Ambassador Idriss concluded.
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