NEW YORK CITY: The UK on Friday condemned drone strikes by the Rapid Support Forces, one of the warring military factions in Sudan, and accused the group and its rival, the Sudanese Armed Forces, of blocking life-saving aid while parts of Sudan’s Darfur region descend into famine.

Speaking ahead of a UN Security Council meeting to discuss the situation in Sudan, requested by Britain, Bahrain and Denmark, the UK’s deputy ambassador, James Kariuki, told reporters that the latest alert from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification warned of famine conditions in the Darfur towns of Um Baru and Kernoi.

“This is a devastating indictment of how the SAF and RSF continue to block life-saving aid,” he added.

The ways in which they are doing this include blocking trade routes, disrupting supply chains and restricting humanitarian access, Kariuki said. Such actions are deliberately exacerbating the crisis, he warned, and constitute violations of international humanitarian law under UN Security Council Resolution 2417.

“Starvation must never be used as a weapon of war,” he added.

More than 33 million people across the country are now in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, Kariuki said, making the humanitarian crisis in Sudan the worst in the world.

The UK also condemned recent RSF drone strikes across the country, including a reported attack on a World Food Programme convoy on Friday that killed an aid worker. Another RSF drone strike in North Kordofan had killed 24 people, including eight children, Kariuki said.

“Humanitarian workers must be able to deliver the response on the ground without obstruction and without retaliation,” he told the Security Council.

The civil war in Sudan began in April 2023 when fighting erupted between the SAF, led by army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, and the paramilitary RSF, commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti.

Kariuki said authorities in the UK had imposed fresh sanctions last Thursday targeting six individuals suspected of committing atrocities or fueling the conflict in Sudan by supplying mercenaries and military equipment.

“These sanctions send a clear message that all those who perpetrate or profit from the brutal violence in Sudan will be held accountable, no matter how long it takes,” he added.