Al-Buran and Hemeti - courtesy

Senior U.S. officials are pressing the United Nations Security Council to adopt a resolution establishing a nationwide arms embargo on Sudan, warning that the country is “descending into hell” amid unchecked drone warfare and foreign intervention.

In an op-ed shared with Eye Radio, Michael Waltz, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and Massad Boulos, Senior Advisor to U.S. President Donald Trump for Arab and African Affairs, argued that existing sanctions are dangerously outdated.

According to the officials, current U.N. restrictions—governed by Security Council Resolution 1591—only apply to the Darfur region and were drafted in 2005, predating modern drone warfare and the expansion of the conflict into Kordofan and Blue Nile states.

The U.S. representatives highlighted the unprecedented scale of the crisis, noting that over 33 million Sudanese require urgent assistance, nearly 19.5 million face acute hunger, and over 13 million have been displaced or killed.

They pointed specifically to the surge in drone strikes as a primary driver of civilian casualties.

“Last year, at least 2,670 people, a number that includes combatants and civilians, were killed in drone attacks. That represents a 600 percent increase in drone-related deaths over a single year,” Waltz and Boulos stated. “Markets, hospitals, schools, and aid routes have become fair game for thugs with remote controls.”

Both the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) were cited for widespread atrocities, including sexual violence, ethnic targeting, and the deliberate blockade of humanitarian aid.

The proposed U.S. resolution aims to expand the embargo across all of Sudan without regional carve-outs, targeting arms traffickers, mercenary recruiters, foreign suppliers, and financial networks backing both warring factions.

Addressing pushback from council members who claim a nationwide ban takes sides or targets private intermediaries, the envoys dismissed the arguments as “cognitive dissonance.”

“If private financiers, smugglers, and unofficial procurement networks are really to blame, then help us identify them, sanction them, block their arms trafficking, and shut them down,” they wrote. “A government that truly has nothing to hide should have no objection helping the U.N. monitor and close arms channels.”

The U.S. officials emphasized that neither the SAF nor the RSF holds political legitimacy to lead the country once hostilities cease. They reiterated calls for a humanitarian truce alongside a U.N. mechanism to deliver relief and transition toward an independent civilian-led dialogue.

“Sudan’s future cannot belong to whichever armed faction is left standing,” the statement concluded. “It must come from a credible, independent civilian dialogue that gives the Sudanese people themselves—not the men with the most guns or the deadliest drones—a say over their future.”