ISTANBUL 

Sudan renewed its call on the international community on Tuesday to halt the flow of weapons to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and classify the group as a “terrorist organization.”

The appeal came during a press conference held by Sudan’s representative to the African Union, Ambassador Al-Zain Ibrahim Hussein, at the Sudanese Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Hussein accused “the international and regional community” of enabling the RSF to commit atrocities in the city of El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, and in other towns and villages, the state news agency SUNA reported.

The RSF captured El-Fasher on Oct. 26 and carried out massacres against civilians, according to local and international organizations, triggering warnings that the takeover could cement a geographic partition of the country.

Hussein called for “ending the violations by cutting off the militia’s funding and arms supply lines,” and urged the world to “designate the militia as a terrorist organization.”

He also warned that the use of foreign mercenaries and fighters in Sudan risked spreading across Africa.

During the briefing, Hussein showed video footage that he said documented “widespread violations of international law and international humanitarian law and mass killings committed by RSF” in El-Fasher, the town of Bara in North Kordofan, and other areas against unarmed civilians.

On Oct. 29, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo acknowledged what he called “violations” by his forces in El-Fasher, saying an investigation had been opened.

The RSF now controls all five states of the Darfur region in western Sudan, while the army holds most of the remaining 13 states in the south, north, east, and center, including the capital, Khartoum.

Since April 15, 2023, the Sudanese army and the RSF have been locked in a war that regional and international mediations have failed to end. The conflict has killed thousands of people and displaced millions of others.