UK calls on rivals to ‘de-escalate urgently’

Violence in Sudan's Darfur region shows “the hallmarks of ethnic cleansing and may amount to crimes against humanity,” UK foreign minister David Lammy said.

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Lammy called on the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to “de-escalate urgently” and said in a statement issued late Thursday that Britain would continue to “use all tools available to us to hold those responsible for atrocities to account.”

Paramilitary shelling of the besieged city of El-Fasher, the state capital of North Darfur, has killed more than 30 civilians and wounded dozens more, activists said on Monday.

Lammy said that reports of the violence in and around El-Fasher were “appalling.”

“Last week, the UK gathered the international community in London to call for an end to the suffering of the Sudanese people.