UN SECURITY COUNCIL CALLS FOR END TO SIEGE OF EL FASHER IN SUDAN

NEW YORK, June 14 (Bernama-dpa) -- The UN Security Council on Thursday adopted a resolution calling for an end to the siege of the Sudanese city of el-Fasher, as well as an end to all violence in the African state that has been gripped by a deadly civil war for more than a year, German news agency (dpa) reported.

Fourteen of the council's members voted in favour of the resolution brought by the United Kingdom, while Russia abstained.

The resolution calls on both the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) as well as the army, which have been embroiled in a bloody power struggle, to immediately halt all fighting.

Rival forces have been fighting for control of El Fasher, the capital of the North Dafur region in western Sudan and the last remaining major city that is not controlled by the RSF.

Since April 2023, the paramilitary RSF, led by Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, have been fighting against the Sudanese armed forces of de facto ruler Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. The two men had seized power together, but then fell out.

The RSF emerged from militia forces which committed serious crimes during the civil war in Dafur in the early 2000s which left hundreds of thousands dead.

The region bordering Chad and the Central African Republic is considered the RSF's strategic centre of power.

Amid the conflict between the military and the RSF, violence directed against ethnic minorities has been on the rise again, including reports of killings, displacement and rape.

Sudan, in north-east Africa, has a population of 44 million. Hundreds of thousands have fled their homes amid the ongoing conflict.

-- BERNAMA-dpa