UNITED NATIONS, April 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Sudan’s warring parties to “immediately cease hostilities, restore calm, and begin a dialogue to resolve the crisis.”
The United Nations chief said “any further escalation” of the conflict between the army and paramilitary forces led by rival generals “could be devastating for the country and the region.”
The violence which erupted Saturday raged for a third day Monday with the death toll surpassing 100.
It broke out after weeks of power struggles between the two generals who seized power in a 2021 coup, Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
“I have spoken during the weekend with the two Sudanese leaders and I am actively engaging with the AU (African Union), the Arab League and leaders across the region,” said Guterres.
He added that the “humanitarian situation in Sudan was already precarious and is now catastrophic.”
“I urge all those with influence over the situation to use it in the cause of peace; to support efforts to end the violence, restore order, and return to the path of transition,” Guterres pleaded.
The United Nations Security Council was due to hold a closed-doors meeting on the situation in Sudan later Monday morning.
Appeals to end the fighting have come from across the region and the globe, including the African Union, Arab League and East African bloc IGAD.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged the warring rivals to agree an “immediate cessation of violence” and start talks.
Fighting also raged in other parts of Sudan including the western Darfur region and in the eastern border state of Kassala.
The doctors’ union warned the fighting had “heavily damaged” multiple hospitals in Khartoum and other cities, with some rendered completely “out of service”.
The World Health Organization had already warned that several of Khartoum’s nine hospitals receiving injured civilians “have run out of blood, transfusion equipment, intravenous fluids and other vital supplies”.
UN Special Representative Volker Perthes, who is in Khartoum, said he was “extremely disappointed” by the failure of both sides to abide by an agreed humanitarian pause on Sunday to evacuate the wounded.
The violence has forced terrified people to shelter in their homes with fears of a prolonged conflict that could plunge Sudan into deeper chaos, dashing hopes for return to civilian rule. — NNN-AGENCIES
