A resolution calling on the United Nations Security Council to enforce the existing arms embargo on Darfur and extend it to cover all of Sudan.

Bill: 118-sres-933
Sponsor: full_name: Sen. Booker, Cory A. [D-NJ]
Introduced: 2024-12-18
Policy area: International Affairs
Latest action: action_date: 2024-12-18
text: Referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations. (text: CR S7181-7182)

Summaries:

tv_txt: III 118th CONGRESS 2d Session S. RES. 933 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES December 18 (legislative day, December 16), 2024 Mr. Booker (for himself, Mr. Rounds , Mr. Van Hollen , Mr. Young , Mr. Kaine , and Mr. Murphy ) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations RESOLUTION Calling on the United Nations Security Council to enforce the existing arms embargo on Darfur and extend it to cover all of Sudan.

Whereas the conflict between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti), and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, that began on April 15, 2023, has resulted in tens of thousands of Sudanese civilian casualties, and likely more, and millions of Sudanese people exposed to unspeakable trauma; Whereas the violence taking place in Sudan against civilians echoes the horrors of the genocide in the country’s Darfur region that began in the early 2000s; Whereas, in July 2004, the United Nations Security Council adopted resolution United Nations Security Council Resolution 1556 (2004), which imposed an arms embargo against all non-governmental entities and individuals, including the Janjaweed, operating in Darfur, and mandated that all states shall take the necessary measures to prevent their nationals or entities operating from their respective territories or using their flag vessels or aircraft, from supplying non-governmental entities or individuals operating in Darfur arms and related materiel of all types, including weapons and ammunition, military vehicles and equipment, paramilitary equipment, and spare parts; Whereas, in March 2005, the United Nations Security Council arms embargo under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1591 (2005) was expanded to include all belligerents in Darfur, including the Government of Sudan; Whereas, in October 2010, United Nations Security Council Resolution 1945 (2010) was adopted, which strengthened the arms embargo by deciding that all states shall ensure that any sale or supply of arms and related materiel to Sudan not prohibited by United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1556 (2004) and 1591 (2005) are made conditional upon the necessary end user documentation so that States may ascertain that any such sale or supply is conducted consistent with the measures imposed by those resolutions; Whereas, on September 11, 2024, the United Nations Security Council renewed United Nations Security Council Resolution 1556 (2004); Whereas state actors and non-state actors across the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Europe are providing weapons and material support to the RSF and SAF for operations in Darfur and across Sudan; Whereas a September 9, 2024, report from Human Rights Watch noted that according to the Arms Trade Database, maintained by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), weapons and equipment from other countries have arrived in Sudan between 2004 and 2023; Whereas, on January 15, 2024, the United Nations Panel of Experts on Sudan presented credible reports to the United Nations Security Council of newly established supply lines to the RSF through neighboring countries; Whereas there are credible reports that multiple countries are supplying weapons and other dual-use items to the SAF; Whereas a 2024 report by the Department of State-affiliated Conflict Observatory describes regular cargo plane deliveries of weapons from foreign nations to the RSF in Darfur via Amdjarass, Chad, and to the SAF via Port Sudan, Sudan; Whereas two 2024 reports by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch identified defense articles in Sudan, including 8 kinds of small arms manufactured in 6 different foreign countries, 6 kinds of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) manufactured in 8 different foreign countries, 5 kinds of ordnances and projectiles manufactured in 6 different foreign countries, and several other types of materiel related to weapons manufactured in 7 different foreign countries, which increase the lethality of the conflict; Whereas these weapons have been observed both inside and outside Darfur, including Gedaref, Northern and Southern Kordofan, Khartoum, and El Gezira state, all areas that are under either SAF or RSF control and where the Fact-Finding Mission documented atrocities, child recruitment, heavy shelling, or sexual violence; Whereas the conflict has led to the partial or complete destruction of cities across Sudan, including El Geneina, El Fasher, El Obeid, Kadugli, Nyala, Wad al-Noura, Zalingei, and even the capital Khartoum; Whereas one or both parties to the conflict have participated in mass atrocities in all of these cities; Whereas the provision of armaments to the RSF and SAF prolongs this conflict and the needless suffering among civilians in Sudan; Whereas both the RSF and SAF have continued to use internet shutdowns as a tool of control and repression, further isolating and exacerbating the suffering of civilians and the ongoing humanitarian crisis; Whereas, on December 6, 2023, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken determined that the SAF and the RSF have committed war crimes and that the RSF and its allies have committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing; Whereas, in September 2024, the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan, authorized by the United Nations Human Rights Council, reported that it had found reasonable grounds to believe that both the SAF and the RSF have committed war crimes and the RSF and allied militias have committed crimes against humanity; Whereas the Fact-Finding Mission has documented the use of explosives with wide area effects in densely populated areas, particularly in Khartoum and Darfur, that has resulted in deaths, injuries, extensive destruction of homes, hospitals, schools and other critical infrastructure, and the Fact-Finding Mission has found that the SAF and the RSF have failed to take sufficient measures to minimize the impact of attacks on civilians; Whereas the supply and provision of weapons to parties involved in crimes against humanity and other atrocities could implicate state and non-state actors supplying weapons used in such atrocities; Whereas, while no reliable fatality figures exist, according to the United States Special Envoy for Sudan, as many as 150,000 people may have died in the first year of the war, and according to advanced statistical estimates from researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, at least 60,000 people have died in Khartoum state alone; Whereas women and children have been subjected to torture and extreme sexual violence in Darfur, Northern and Southern Kordofan, Khartoum, and El Gezira states; Whereas the Fact-Finding Mission reports that children are being forcibly recruited, trained, and armed by the SAF in Khartoum, River Nile, Kassala, Gedaref, Sennar, and Red Sea states, and by the RSF in the Darfur, Kordofan, and Khartoum states; Whereas the draft resolution contained in document S/2024/826, submitted to the United Nations Security Council on November 18, 2024, by Sierra Leone and the United Kingdom, and calling for a nationwide ceasefire, increased protection of civilians and the unhindered flow of humanitarian aid across Sudan and garnered support from 14 out of 15 United Nations Security Council members; Whereas only one individual has ever been sanctioned for violating the Darfur arms embargo pursuant to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1591 (2005); and Whereas the Fact-Finding Mission has recommended that the United Nations arms embargo be expanded to cover the entire country: Now, therefore, be it

That the Senate— (1) condemns the atrocities committed by the warring parties in Sudan, including those that may amount to genocide by the RSF and allied militias against the Masalit people and other non-Arab ethnic groups in Darfur; (2) calls for an immediate end to the war and all violence and atrocities in Sudan; (3) calls on the United Nations Security Council— (A) to expand the Darfur arms embargo to apply to all territory and actors within the internationally recognized borders of Sudan; (B) to expand the Darfur arms embargo to include dual-use equipment under the list of prohibited material; (C) to establish a more stringent sanctions enforcement regime to ensure actors violating the current Darfur arms embargo are held accountable; and (D) to establish a mechanism for unfettered delivery of humanitarian aid and a mechanism to protect civilians; (4) calls on the United Nations General Assembly to pass a resolution that calls for a nationwide ceasefire, recognizes the atrocities taking place in Sudan, and calls for a more effective and inclusive arms embargo on Sudan, unfettered delivery of humanitarian aid across Sudan, and a mechanism to protect civilians; and (5) calls on the United States Government— (A) to increase support for civil society and local organizations that are monitoring and documenting atrocities and weapons deliveries into Sudan as well as delivering humanitarian resources to vulnerable communities; (B) to increase and develop improved mechanisms for monitoring and documenting atrocities and weapons supply chains into and across Sudan; and (C) to press the United Nations, the African Union, and other allies and partners— (i) to condemn the atrocities taking place in Sudan; (ii) to call for a more effective and inclusive arms embargo on Sudan; (iii) to work to ensure unfettered delivery of humanitarian aid across Sudan; (iv) to support a mechanism to protect civilians; and (v) to use their influence to pressure the SAF and RSF to end this conflict.