UN extends Darfur arms embargo for four weeks amid US-Russia rift

The UN Security Council has voted 15-0 to extend its arms embargo on Sudan's Darfur region, but only for another four weeks. The resolution is a holding pattern rather than a decision, after the United States failed to win support for expanding the ban across all of Sudan.

Washington's deputy ambassador Jeffrey Bartos pointed to an airstrike on a World Food Programme convoy in South Kordofan, outside the embargo's current reach, arguing inaction meant more suffering. Russia and China objected, saying Sudan's army needs weapons to hold its advantage against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

Sudan's government also opposed a countrywide embargo, arguing it would wrongly equate its national army with militias and foreign fighters. The embargo dates back to 2004, before the RSF existed under that name, and UN experts say weapons are reaching both sides of the war.

When the Council revisits Sudan in October, the question will be whether Washington forces a vote on a wider embargo and risks a Russian veto, or accepts another year of Darfur-only sanctions.

Al Jazeera's Gabriel Elizondo reports from the United Nations.

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