Russia and China push back as Trump administration seeks arms embargo across Sudan

The Trump administration is pushing to extend a two-decade-old UN arms embargo across all of Sudan, setting up a confrontation with Russia and China as Washington seeks to restrict the foreign weapons and drones fuelling one of Africa’s deadliest conflicts.

• The Trump administration is seeking to extend a two-decade-old UN arms embargo from Darfur to the whole of Sudan.
• Washington also wants the restrictions to explicitly cover drones and related technologies as unmanned weapons play a growing role in the war.
• Russia and China have pushed back against expanding the sanctions regime, while Sudan’s government has also rejected the proposal.
• The diplomatic fight comes as foreign weapons continue to reach Sudan despite existing restrictions, complicating efforts to end a war that has displaced about 13 million people.

Massad Boulos, US President Donald Trump’s senior adviser for Arab and African affairs, presented the proposal during a UN Security Council meeting on Sudan on Monday.

Washington wants the existing embargo, which applies to Darfur, extended across Sudan. It also wants the restrictions to explicitly cover unmanned aerial vehicles, drone systems and related technologies.

The proposal would further strengthen the UN panel responsible for monitoring Sudan sanctions and improve coordination with other expert panels investigating arms flows and sanctions violations in the region.

Boulos told the council that outside financial, political and military assistance remains a major factor sustaining the war.

The Trump adviser did not publicly name the countries he believes are providing that support.

The US move comes more than three years after fighting erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, widely known as Hemedti.

The conflict has killed at least 59,000 people and displaced about 13 million, according to figures cited by the Associated Press. Parts of the country have also been pushed into famine.

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Russia and China resist Washington’s plan

Expanding the embargo, however, faces opposition from Russia and China, two permanent members of the Security Council with veto powers.

China has urged the council to be cautious about expanding sanctions, arguing that widening punitive measures could undermine Sudan’s long-term stability and disrupt economic activity.

Russia has also opposed expanding the sanctions regime.

Moscow’s UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, argued against widening the arms embargo, while calling instead for greater emphasis on Sudan’s sovereignty and a political settlement.

Sudan’s government has taken a similar position. Its UN representative, Al-Harith Idriss, rejected extending the embargo beyond Darfur, arguing that doing so would place the country’s national army on the same footing as the RSF.

Khartoum instead wants stronger enforcement of existing restrictions against external networks supplying weapons and drones to the conflict.

France has backed extending the embargo across Sudan. The disagreement leaves Washington facing a significant diplomatic hurdle if it wants the Security Council to approve the changes.

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A 20-year embargo that has struggled to stop weapons

The sanctions regime Washington wants expanded dates back to 2005.

UN Security Council Resolution 1591 imposed restrictions on arms supplies to parties operating in Darfur and established a panel of experts to investigate violations, financing and weapons networks.

Two decades later, evidence suggests the restrictions have failed to prevent foreign-made weapons from reaching Sudan.

Amnesty International said an investigation published in 2024 identified recently manufactured or transferred weapons and ammunition originating from China, Russia, Serbia, Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen in Sudan.

The organisation described the existing Darfur embargo as ineffective, saying some of those weapons had subsequently been diverted into the region.

A separate Amnesty investigation in 2025 identified Chinese-made GB50A guided bombs and 155mm AH-4 howitzers used by the RSF.

Amnesty concluded that the weapons were almost certainly re-exported to Sudan by the United Arab Emirates.

The UAE has repeatedly denied accusations that it arms the RSF.

The findings are particularly relevant to Washington’s latest push because the US proposal does more than expand the geographical reach of the embargo. It specifically seeks to establish that drones and related technologies fall under the restrictions.

Drones are changing Sudan’s war

Drone warfare has become an increasingly important part of the conflict as both sides seek the ability to strike targets beyond conventional front lines.

UN political chief Rosemary DiCarlo told the Security Council that the proliferation of increasingly sophisticated weapons, particularly drones, was intensifying the threat to civilians.

Recent attacks have demonstrated how far that threat can extend.

In February, an RSF drone strike on a vehicle carrying displaced families near Rahad in North Kordofan killed at least 24 people, including eight children, according to the Sudan Doctors Network.

A World Food Programme aid convoy was also hit in a separate drone attack in North Kordofan around the same period.

More recently, Chad accused Sudanese forces of carrying out drone strikes against a convoy more than 100 kilometres inside Chadian territory, an allegation that underscored the risk of Sudan’s conflict spilling across its borders.

Sudan’s war has already drawn competing regional interests. Egypt has publicly backed Sudan’s army, while the UAE has repeatedly faced allegations from UN experts and human rights organisations that it provided military support to the RSF, allegations Abu Dhabi denies.

Washington is now attempting to use the UN sanctions regime to reduce those external flows.

But with Russia and China resisting an expansion, the debate over who can send weapons into Sudan has itself become part of the geopolitical struggle surrounding the war.