Last Updated: April 26, 2023, 06:09 IST
Sudan’s ruling navy chief General Abdel-Fattah Burhan and head of the RSF paramilitary group, General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, are vying to take management of the nation (Image: Reuters)
Following the favored overthrow of long-term dictator Omar al-Bashir 4 years in the past, the generals carried out a joint navy coup in 2021
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday warned that the continuing energy battle between Sudan’s prime generals not solely places the way forward for the nation in danger however threatens to “detonate across borders”.
“It is incumbent on Sudanese leaders to put the interests of their people front and center,” he said in his remarks to the Security Council on Sudan.
Guterres said a prolonged full-scale war was “unbearable to contemplate” warning that seven nations border Sudan, all of which had seen battle or severe civil unrest prior to now decade.
Poverty and hunger are already rampant across the whole region, he added.
“This conflict will not, and must not, be resolved on the battlefield, with the bodies of Sudan’s children, women and men.”
Following the popular overthrow of long-term dictator Omar al-Bashir four years ago, the generals carried out a joint military coup in 2021, ending the brief and fragile civilian power-sharing agreement that it was hoped would take Sudan into a new era of peace and civilian rule.
As negotiations advanced following positive steps towards elections and a democratic future, the two military factions failed to agree on how to integrate the SAF and RSF forces, sparking this months in-fighting.
Guterres said the Sudanese people, “have made their wishes very clear. They want peace and the restoration of civilian rule through the transition to democracy”, he told ambassadors in New York.
He urged all with influence and interests in restoring peace, to press the generals to return to the negotiating table immediately.
Since Sudan erupted in warfare between the army and the RSF on April 15, derailing a transition to civilian democracy, the paramilitaries have embedded themselves in residential districts and the army has sought to target them from the air.
At least 450 have been killed, and over 3,700 injured, according to conservative UN estimates which are climbing upwards.
Late on Tuesday, fighting flared anew in Sudan despite a ceasefire declaration by the warring factions as more people fled the capital Khartoum and former officials, Reuters reported.
The Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) agreed to a 72-hour ceasefire beginning on Tuesday after negotiations mediated by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.
But gunfire and explosions could be heard after nightfall in Omdurman, one of Khartoum’s sister cities on the Nile River where the army used drones to target RSF positions, a Reuters reporter said.
The army also used drones to try to drive fighters back from a fuel refinery in Bahri, the third city at the confluence of the Blue Nile and White Nile.
(With company inputs)
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