Top Diplomats From Germany, Jordan, And UK Urge Immediate Ceasefire In Sudan Conflict

The Foreign Ministers of Germany, Jordan and the United Kingdom on Saturday jointly called for an immediate ceasefire in the war in Sudan. The call came after a paramilitary force seized the last major city in the East African nation's Darfur region.

United Nations officials have warned that fighters with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have carried out ethnically targeted killings of civilians and sexual assaults. They have also reportedly killed over 450 people in a hospital. The forces have, however, denied killing people at the hospital. 

British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, while attending the Manama Dialogue security summit in Bahrain highlighted the events in el-Fasher, where a paramilitary force known as the Rapid Support Forces has seized the city.

“Just as a combination of leadership and international cooperation has made progress in Gaza, it is currently badly failing to deal with the humanitarian crisis and the devastating conflict in Sudan, because the reports from Darfur in recent days have truly horrifying atrocities," Cooper said. “Mass executions, starvation and the devastating use of rape as a weapon of war, with women and children bearing the brunt of the largest humanitarian crisis in the 21st century. For too long, this terrible conflict has been neglected, while suffering has simply increased,” AP reported. 

She added that "no amount of aid can resolve a crisis of this magnitude until the guns fall silent.”

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul also asserted that “Sudan is absolutely an apocalyptic situation.”

Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said Sudan has not received “the attention it deserves. A humanitarian crisis of inhumane proportions has taken place there. We've got to stop that,” he said.