UN refugee chief Salih urges Security Council action on Sudan in first address

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Barham Salih made his first appearance before the Security Council since taking office in January, using the address to focus on the scale of global displacement and the war in Sudan.

Salih told the council that more than 117 million people have been forced from their homes by conflict, violence, persecution and other threats to their safety. He said the figure carried a deeper meaning, describing displacement as a signal of the wider condition of the world and warning that it is outpacing the solutions available.

Conflicts, he said, are multiplying and many are becoming more protracted, while political solutions remain out of reach. Millions who fled what they believed would be a temporary crisis now find themselves displaced for years, and in some cases for generations. He framed the issue not only as a humanitarian problem but as a challenge to international peace and security.

Much of his remarks centred on Sudan. Recalling his first month in the job, Salih said he had travelled to Chad, Kenya, Ethiopia and Egypt, where he met Sudanese refugees who had escaped horrific violence. He also acknowledged the solidarity shown by the countries that have taken them in, while stressing that they cannot bear the consequences of the conflict alone.

He called for the protection of civilians inside Sudan and for safe, sustained access for humanitarian organisations. Even so, he said, aid alone cannot resolve the crisis: as long as the war continues, people will keep fleeing. Humanitarian assistance can keep people alive, he added, but it cannot deliver the peace Sudan needs to return and rebuild.

Salih said there is no military solution to the conflict and called for a humanitarian truce and the start of serious dialogue, including with civilians, to lay the ground for a durable peace. He urged the council to use its influence, collectively and individually, to help end what he described as a devastating conflict.

Turning to asylum, Salih said the people he met on his first missions had crossed borders not because they wanted to become refugees but because remaining at home had become impossible. He said states retain the right to manage their borders and that the convention does not diminish their sovereignty in applying their laws, describing it as one of the most practical instruments the international community has created. Asylum, he said, also serves a purpose of direct relevance to the council: it is a bridge to peace.