The United States of America is deeply frustrated by this Council’s continued reluctance to, with the immediacy, clarity and depth required, confront the catastrophe unfolding in Sudan. For two years, we have witnessed a campaign of mass killing, ethnic cleansing and terror unfold in real time. We have adopted resolutions, we have expressed outrage, we have pledged aid. Yet the basic power balance on the ground has barely shifted. The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and other armed actors still behave as if this Council is a distant echo, not a serious constraint.

Let us be very clear: the United States will not sit idle while Sudan collapses and the wider region is set ablaze by another failed State infecting its neighbors with the same war crimes that have defined the Member State of Sudan recently.

In light of the Council’s failure to adopt stronger measures, and given the escalating risks to civilians, humanitarian workers and regional security, the United States can confirm that it intends to redeploy additional military assets to the region to ensure its further stability with the propensity to react if needed. The USS Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group will be moved into the Red Sea, and additional United States personnel will be deployed to Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti. These forces are being positioned to enhance maritime security, support humanitarian operations and ensure that the United States has the capability to protect our citizens, our partners and critical shipping lanes in the event that the crisis in Sudan spills further across borders. This crisis is one that must be treated with the most severe concern, and the lack of action by the United Nations Security Council in passing a resolution to effectively counteract the systems creating this crisis has warranted this action.

We did not take this decision lightly. We would have preferred a robust, collective response from this Council, especially from those allies and partners who rely on the United States for their own security. We hoped to impose real costs on those spoilers seeking to further escalate conflict in the region, to cut off their access to weapons, money and safe havens, and to send an unmistakable signal that terrorizing civilians carries consequences. We have acted in good faith and believed in our resolution. Instead, far too many Member States have hidden behind process, abstractions or appeals to “balance.” All while villages burn, women and children are victimized and aid workers are hunted down, kidnapped and murdered as war crimes and genocide run rampant.

Thus, our message tonight is twofold.

First, to the people of Sudan and the wider region: the United States will not abandon you. We will continue to push for tougher sanctions, a nationwide arms embargo and a clear pathway to designate the RSF as the terrorist organization its actions already reveal it to be. We will use our diplomatic, economic and, if necessary, military tools to defend humanitarian corridors, safeguard international navigation and support those working for a just, civilian-led future for Sudan. We are not sending a carrier to impose a government on Sudan; we are sending it to make sure that the warlords who are destroying your country know that the world’s most powerful democracy is watching, is present and is prepared to act to prevent further regional destabilization.

Second, to our friends and allies on this Council: partnership runs in both directions. Many of you depend on the United States for your own security, for extended deterrence and for the credibility of the rules-based order you invoke in every debate. It is not too much to ask that you stand with us when we seek to defend those same rules for Sudanese civilians. We will continue to engage in good faith, but we will also continue to say plainly what this moment demands: humanitarian band-aids without hard pressure, international overview and the restriction of economic activity to inhibit the perpetrators are not enough. If this Council cannot bring itself to act commensurate with the scale of the crimes in Sudan, the United States will still do what is necessary to protect international peace and security, alongside any partners prepared to join us.

We remain committed to working through the United Nations, with the African Union and regional actors, to achieve a ceasefire, a political settlement, a stable future and accountability for atrocities. However, we will not confuse the Council’s comfort with caution for a strategy. The deployment of United States forces to the Red Sea and Camp Lemonnier is a signal: one to the parties imminently fighting this crisis, to their backers, and to all who would profit from Sudan’s destruction—that there is at least one Member State of this Council prepared to match words with capabilities, and is deeply disappointed by those Member States who have thus far chosen inaction and complacency.