UNITED NATIONS —
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced $200 million in new humanitarian funding for the Sudanese people at a high-level Sudan meeting he chaired Thursday at the U.N. Security Council, bringing total U.S. support to Sudan to more than $2.3 billion since fighting began among rival generals in April 2023.
U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello spoke to VOA U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer on the sidelines of the council meeting. He said the outgoing administration of U.S. President Joe Biden wants to consolidate humanitarian progress and move toward a ceasefire, even a temporary one, in its remaining weeks.
Once allies in Sudan’s transitional government after a 2021 coup, Sudanese Armed Forces General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Rapid Support Forces General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo have become bitter rivals for power. Fighting erupted between their forces in the capital, Khartoum, last year. It has since spread across Sudan, causing widespread atrocities and killing, and one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.
The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
VOA: U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello, thank you for talking to VOA today. You have one month to go for the Biden administration. What do you realistically think you can achieve in the remaining weeks on Sudan?
U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello: Well, one of the things that Secretary Blinken made clear today at the United Nations is that we’re going to use every second we’ve got, and we’ve got some momentum. We’re in the fifth straight month of breaking the largest humanitarian embargo in the world, but we have so much more to do. We’ve seen four times more food and medicine moving into Sudan than we saw just a few months ago, and each one of those is food and medicine reaching a mother or a child that’s been malnourished for months in places like Zamzam camp or Kadugli in South Kordofan. We’re getting the convoys moving, including the first convoy into parts of southern Khartoum since the war began almost two years ago. So, we have got a lock in those humanitarian gains that are saving lives. But ultimately, we’ve got to move towards a ceasefire, even a temporary ceasefire, from the parties, to give some relief to the horrific conditions that millions of Sudanese people are facing.
VOA: And how do you hope to move toward that temporary ceasefire? Might you convene another meeting of the ALPS [Aligned for Advancing Lifesaving and Peace in Sudan] before January 20th?
Perriello: I just came yesterday from Mauritania, where we were meeting with the African Union, the United Nations, the Arab League and others, about how we can move towards expanding both local and national ceasefire efforts. It was a big statement for Secretary Blinken to sit at the council today in the U.N. And you heard from the Algerians and the other African leaders this idea that we’ve got to give more urgency to this ceasefire. … This famine and this war was a war of choice by men who were willing to let the Sudanese people suffer, and those same men can help bring it to an end if we can get the regional actors in Africa and in the Gulf to align on an effort to put a pause in the fighting and restore the civilian transition.
VOA: Would you say the two generals are the biggest obstacle to peace? Is this just about their egos? Or does it go deeper?
Perriello: Well, certainly it was a big part of what started this war. But really, you have to go back a few steps and remember it was Generals Hemeti [Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo] and [Abdel Fattah] al-Burhan joining forces to overthrow the civilian transition that had inspired the world in 2019. And there are many forces behind both of them that want to prevent the people of Sudan from having the power over their future. And we continue to see that with extremist groups and others who want to profit from this war, whether it’s groups like the National Congress party of the former Bashir era, that know the people wouldn’t support them having power, and they’re using this war to come back to power. We see some of the tribal leaders who should be some of the strongest voices for peace, instead of figuring out how to profit off of the famine and off of the war, we see countries that have engaged and are willing to continue to see that suffering of the Sudanese people. But we’ve also seen neighboring countries show the welcomeness … to accept millions of refugees. We’ve seen efforts in the region to work with us on these local ceasefire efforts, including some of these humanitarian corridors. So, it’s important that we not use the level of the crisis as an excuse to do nothing, because when we’ve engaged, we’ve been able to make a difference. And I think that’s what Secretary Blinken was trying to remind the council today.
VOA: What will it take to get the two generals to the negotiating table?
Perriello: Well, first of all, I think we’ll continue to try to push them to the table, but what we showed with the ALPS efforts in Switzerland on humanitarian access is you don’t need a table anymore. We have telephones. We have proximity talks. What we need is the political will, and we appreciate that countries like Saudi Arabia and Egypt and others are continuing to try to support these peace efforts. We think the African Union has a role to play. And the American people, in the same way we’ve seen Americans show just so much compassion in crisis after crisis around the world, we need folks to see these young people with the Mutual Aid Sudan and elsewhere that are risking their lives to get food and medicine into their communities. They need that support and attention from us. It’s also something, quite frankly, that has really strong bipartisan support on Capitol Hill, including from a recent letter this week from both Republican and Democratic senators trying to draw more attention to the crisis in Sudan. So, it needs all of us to pay more attention, but most of all, it needs the people with guns and the people supplying guns to all sides in Sudan, to put those down and become partners in peace.
VOA: You mentioned, and Secretary Blinken mentioned in the council, that there’s a lot of external interference in the war in Sudan. There’s credible evidence the UAE has been fueling the violence and supplying the RSF with arms. Why has the Biden administration been reluctant to really exert significant public pressure on the UAE?
Perriello: Well, you saw some powerful testimony today at the Security Council about this issue, about foreign interference and the role certain countries are playing to fuel this conflict. The Biden administration has really led the way on putting pressure on all of the external actors to stop fueling this war and inviting them to be partners in peace, both ending the famine and trying to end this war. [U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.] Linda Thomas-Greenfield helped push for an extension of the Darfur arms embargo — and also the first sanctions for violating that arms embargo in over 15 years. We are going to continue with our sanctions and with our diplomacy to raise the costs of those that are fueling this conflict, but also to continue to invite in those who want to be partners for not just peace for the Sudanese people, but how we rebuild Sudan and how we restore that civilian transition. Secretary Blinken announced today an additional $30 million with Congress to support civil society, particularly women and youth, who have continued to inspire us in Sudan, to help rebuild that political dialogue and that path — the only real path forward — which is a unified civilian front into peace and democracy.
VOA: There are reports that the State Department is considering a genocide declaration. Why the reluctance to use the “genocide” word?
Perriello: Far from reluctance, the State Department’s really been leading the way. I mean, as someone who was in Darfur more than 20 years ago when the genocide was happening. When I was out of government a year ago, I was proud that the State Department led the way on declaring the acts of ethnic cleansing that we heard about from the Sultan of the Masalit today. Called out the crimes against humanity. We’ll continue to look at where the facts lead in terms of other designations.
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