The UN envoy to the country said there was no sign Sudan’s warring parties were ready to seriously negotiate an end to the fighting, as a precarious 72-hour ceasefire has been partially maintained despite reports of armed clashes in Sudan’s strategic capital Khartoum and other places .
Both sides in the conflict believe they can emerge victorious, Volker Pertes, the UN special envoy to Sudan, told a UN Security Council meeting in New York City on Tuesday.
“There has been no clear indication that either side is ready to negotiate in earnest, suggesting that both sides believe it is possible to outwit the other militarily,” Potus said.
“It was a miscalculation,” he said by video link from Port Sudan in the east of the country, where the United Nations and other agencies have moved some personnel.
Commenting on the temporary and precarious truce between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that came into force on Tuesday, Perthes said it was “currently in place with a ceasefire” but that fighting continued to focus on field.
“We also keep hearing reports of fighting and troop movements,” he said.
Perthes also condemned the fighters who have turned Khartoum into a war zone since the fighting broke out on April 15, which he described as “disregarding the laws and norms of war”, which has now killed hundreds, wounded thousands and destroyed Civilian infrastructure was attacked, including hospitals.
“Both belligerents are fighting in disregard of the laws and norms of warfare, attacking populated areas with little regard for civilians, hospitals, or even vehicles transporting the sick and wounded,” the UN envoy said.
The fighting has “created a humanitarian catastrophe, with civilians bearing the brunt,” Perthes said.
Residential areas of Khartoum have been turned into battlegrounds, with gun and tank fire, airstrikes and shelling killing at least 459 people, injuring more than 4,000, cutting power and water and limiting food distribution to a third of the country’s 46 million people One of the people is already dependent on food aid.
“heartbreaking”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the violence and chaos in Sudan as “heartbreaking” and warned at a UN meeting on Tuesday that the fighting could spread to other countries in the region.
“Sudan borders seven countries, all of which have been embroiled in conflict or experienced serious civil unrest in the past decade,” he said.
“Sudan’s power struggle is not only jeopardizing the country’s future. It is lighting a fuse that could detonate across borders, causing years of great suffering and setting back development by decades.”
Despite the ceasefire, the army used drones to target RSF positions in Omdurman, Khartoum’s sister city, across the Nile late on Tuesday, and gunfire and gunshots could reportedly still be heard after nightfall, a Reuters reporter said. Explosion.
The army also used drones to attempt to drive fighters back from an oil refinery in Bahri, the third city at the confluence of the Blue and White Niles, Reuters reported.
Al Jazeera’s diplomatic correspondent James Bess, reporting from UN headquarters in New York City, said UN Secretary-General Guterres painted a “very gloomy and pessimistic picture” of the situation on the ground in Sudan, especially with regard to the spread of the conflict.
“The secretary-general reiterated his warning that this could spread beyond Sudan’s borders, pointing to seven countries bordering Sudan that have all experienced unrest or conflict in recent years,” Bess said.
“We’ve also heard that there are some tribes and armed groups in Darfur who are taking up arms, a real concern that could appeal to some countries around the region,” he said.
Bess said there was already a humanitarian crisis in the country before the current fighting, adding that “it’s much worse now” amid a faltering ceasefire.
“The narrative on the ground about the current ceasefire is that it’s very, very piecemeal, piecemeal and only partial,” he added.
