UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned the violence from the power struggle between two generals in Sudan and associated violence escalated on Saturday and Sunday, with at least dozens of civilians and soldiers killed.
The senior officials were responding to the outbreak of armed clashes between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in many parts of the capital Khartoum and other areas outside the capital, on Saturday morning.
According to media reports, the RSF claimed that it had taken control of Khartoum international airport, Merowe Airport, al-Obeid Airport, and the presidential palace.
The RSF, an independent Sudanese military force, grew out of the Janjaweed militia, formerly active in the Darfur region of the country. The organization has been involved in talks aimed at a transition from the military rule in place since the 2021 military coup, to a civilian government.
Guterres in a statement by his Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric called for the leaders of the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces to “immediately cease hostilities.
The UN chief called on them to restore calm and initiate a dialogue to resolve the current crisis and for Member States in the region to support efforts to restore order and return to the path of transition to civilian rule.
Dujarric said that Guterres had spoken to President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt and Moussa Faki Mahamat, the President of the African Union, on how to de-escalate the situation.
The Spokesperson added that the secretary-general also spoke to the leaders of the two opposing military sides – Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah Al Burhan of the Sudanese Army, and Lieutenant General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo of the RSF.
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He called for an immediate stop to the violence and a return to dialogue, offering his good offices, in close coordination with ongoing efforts to restore security and conclude the ongoing political process.
The integration of the RSF into the armed forces has been one of the issues under discussion, as part of an UN-backed political agreement reached in February, following months of negotiations.
However, during a Security Council briefing on March 20, Volker Perthes, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Sudan and Head of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS), warned that tensions between the Sudanese Army and the RSF have risen in recent weeks, and called for de-escalation.
In his statement on the current fighting, Perthes reached out to both parties asking them for an immediate cessation of fighting, to ensure the safety of the Sudanese people, and spare the country from further violence.
Similar fears were expressed by Martin Griffiths, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator. In a Tweet, Griffiths said that more violence would only make things worse for the nearly 16 million people, around a third of the population, in need of humanitarian aid.
Also, in a Tweet, Volker Türk, the UN rights chief, expressed alarm at the unfolding situation noting that the people of Sudan “deserve better.”
Türk wrote that a “voice of reason” is urgently needed, in order to stop violence and “revert to earlier promising path towards peace and civilian transition.”
An update on the humanitarian situation in Sudan, released on April 13 by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) noted that humanitarian needs across Sudan are at an all-time high, with conflict one of the four most significant risks, alongside natural disasters, disease outbreaks, and economic deterioration.
