United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres
NAIROBI, May 3 (NNN-KBC) — The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is in Kenya for a two-day official visit.
During the visit, UNSG will hold talks with President William Ruto, with top of his agenda being the security and humanitarian situation in Sudan as well as holding consultations with all the Heads of UN Agencies who are meeting in Nairobi this week.
On Tuesday, Ruto and the United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed ways to end the crisis in Sudan.
Ruto thanked the US and Saudi Arabia for their help in negotiating a ceasefire.
He said Kenya will focus its efforts on alleviating the humanitarian crisis.
“Kenya will work closely with UN agencies and other organisations to coordinate, scale up and deliver humanitarian assistance to the people of Sudan. The ceasefire will guarantee that this happens smoothly.”
The President had earlier in the day held talks with UN agencies and other humanitarian organisations on delivering food, water and medicine to the people in Sudan.
The President also met with former Sudan Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok.
On April 15, violence broke out primarily in Khartoum, between rival military factions battling for control of Africa’s third largest country.
This came after days of tension as members of the RSF were redeployed around the country in a move that the army saw as a threat.
According to BBC, since a 2021 coup, Sudan has been run by a council of generals, led by the two military men at the centre of this dispute – Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of the armed forces and in effect the country’s president, and his deputy and leader of the RSF, Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti.
They have disagreed on the direction the country is going in and the proposed move towards civilian rule.
The main sticking points are plans to include the 100,000-strong RSF into the army, and who would then lead the new force.
Gen Dagalo has accused Gen Burhan’s government of being “radical Islamists” and that he and the RSF were “fighting for the people of Sudan to ensure the democratic progress for which they have so long yearned”. — NNN-KBC
