The United Nations Security Council has repudiated a Sudanese paramilitary group’s declaration of an independent state in parts of Sudan that it controls. On Wednesday, council members rejected the rival government proposed by the Rapid Support Forces as a threat to Sudan’s territorial integrity, as well as regional stability. The council also called on the RSF to lift its siege of El Fasher, capital of Sudan’s North Darfur state, where hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by fighting amid a growing hunger crisis and the spread of diseases including cholera.