Sudanese factions using starvation as weapon is ‘cowardice’, US envoy says

The US special envoy for Sudan has accused the two factions in the country’s civil war of “cowardice” before crucial peace talks that are due to start on Wednesday.

Tom Perriello told the Guardian that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese military “lacked courage and honour” because of their continued use of starvation as a weapon.

Such tactics have helped create the world’s largest hunger crisis, in a country once regarded as a global breadbasket.

The willingness of both sides to weaponise supplies of food has led to an official declaration of famine at a displacement camp in Darfur, and more than 25 million people across Sudan are now classified as facing acute hunger.

US-mediated talks aimed at ending Sudan’s 15-month war will commence on Wednesday in Geneva, Switzerland. Although the RSF has agreed to participate, the Sudanese army has so far indicated it will not attend this latest diplomatic attempt to halt the fighting.

The delicate nature of proceedings were not enough to prevent Perriello from venting his frustration, particularly over the continuing efforts by both sides to disrupt the planting and harvesting of crops in Sudan, and the blocking of humanitarian aid.

He said: “It is not only a clear violation of international humanitarian law by both sides, it’s just cowardice.

“It is shocking to see the lack of courage and honour, particularly where there are people who don’t seem to want to fight militarily, but would rather use starving women and children as their arsenal.”

He urged the Sudanese military to allow UN aid to cross the border from Chad and into the Darfur region. Up to 800,000 civilians in the beseiged city of El Fasher, the capital of Darfur, are suffering from a severe lack of food and water.

Claire Nicolet of Médecins Sans Frontières , one of the few remaining aid agencies still in El Fasher, said getting anything into the city was “very close to impossible”.

Near the capital, famine was recently declared in Zamzam camp. No food aid is reaching the 500,000 people who live there.

Related: Children ‘at death’s door’ as famine declared in Sudanese refugee camp

A recent statement from UN experts rebuked both sides for adopting starvation as part of their military strategy.

“The extent of hunger and displacement we see in Sudan today is unprecedented and never witnessed before,” the statement said. “The SAF [Sudanese armed forces] and RSF must stop blocking, looting and exploiting humanitarian assistance.”

Perriello said the two factions risked destroying any remaining credibility they may have in a postwar Sudan if they continued to exploit hunger to inflict harm. “Whatever claims of legitimacy either side wants to make are clearly undermined in the eyes of the Sudanese people and the world when they’re taking these actions,” he said.

Perriello insisted the Geneva talks would go ahead regardless of the Sudanese army’s absence.

The RSF has been pushing further into the east of Sudan, reducing the area controlled by the Sudanese military despite its claims of full sovereignty of Africa’s third largest state.

Some agencies want the UN security council to authorise cross-border aid deliveries to millions of people in desperate need, a model based on the arrangement agreed for Syria that allowed supplies to reach rebel-held areas during its civil war.

Emmanuel Rinck, the Sudan representative for Solidarités International , another charity in El Fasher, said: “It gives the right to cross borders by default, without the need to ask for consent. Right now it just doesn’t exist.”

The talks in Geneva follow widespread concern over the failure of the international community to break the siege of El Fasher, and accusations that the west has done too little to curtail the conflict.

Kholood Khair, a Sudanese political analyst and the founding director of Confluence Advisory, a thinktank in Khartoum, said the international response left the impression that Sudan had been diplomatically “deprioritised”.

“The RSF wants western engagement, but for the SAF it’s the complete opposite. For them it’s a badge of honour to be hated by the west; that means you have to incentivise them differently.”

Khair also lamented that too many countries appeared to be sitting on the fence as the war played out to avoid “alienating” the side that eventually prevailed.

The head of the Sudanese military, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, explaining why it had reservations with the Switzerland process, said the RSF’s occupation of civilian areas went against agreements made last year.

The military also criticised the participation of the UAE, which it alleges is supporting the RSF with weapons, a claim denied by the emirates.