Sudan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Al-Harith Idris, said weapons received by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) from external supporters, as well as those acquired through regional smuggling markets, are being traded outside any institutional oversight, exacerbating organized crime and creating a parallel economy that threatens regional security and peace. In Sudan’s statement to the UN Security Council in New York on Monday evening, Idris said these actors are targeting Sudan’s stability and fueling forces of division. He noted the growing influence of profiteers benefiting from resources looted and smuggled across borders, saying the war in Sudan has evolved into a business war based on contractual relationships, financiers, and buyers, and sustained by money, power, fighters, and youth recruitment networks—turning violence into a commodity that can be bought and sold. Idris stressed that the open borders linking Darfur with Libya, Chad, and the Central African Republic represent one manifestation of this threat. He said recent developments in Bir Saliba and at border crossings confirmed that desert routes are a vital lifeline for the RSF and its mercenaries. He warned of a growing phenomenon of kidnapping for ransom, extortion, and the trafficking of violence carried out by the RSF with impunity. The envoy said the RSF had been supplied with man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS), warning that their proliferation into the Horn of Africa and Sahel countries poses a threat to civilian aviation, UN missions, and counterterrorism operations. He added that reports had also documented the presence of advanced anti-drone jamming systems, mortars, anti-materiel rifles, small arms, signal pistols, and millions of rounds of ammunition that are being converted into lethal weapons inside Sudan to kill civilians and destroy infrastructure. Idris stressed that these weapons systems are spreading without a UN system for weapons tracing and marking, and without a plan to disarm the RSF and mercenaries or target intermediary networks. He said weapons entering Sudan through its borders would eventually make their way into Sahel and Horn of Africa countries. The Sudanese UN envoy questioned why the response to such violations should be to expand restrictions across Sudan as a whole rather than enforce the existing arms embargo and hold accountable those violating it and continuing to supply armed groups with weapons. He stressed that the Sudanese Armed Forces are a national institution, not an armed group or a parallel entity to the state, and that any sanctions framework placing state institutions and armed groups on the same footing constitutes an attack on national sovereignty. Al-Harith Idris said any measure that undermines the Armed Forces’ ability to defend civilians targeted by the RSF’s repeated drone attacks—including extending an arms embargo to cover all of Sudan—would recreate the conditions that produced El-Fasher massacre.He added that those proposing such measures could not be considered neutral, but rather as taking a position against the Sudanese people and civilians.BH/BH