The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, renewed his support for his envoy to Sudan, expressing his “shock” at a message from the Sudanese army commander, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, in which he called for his replacement.
Despite the declared truce in Sudan, the sound of bullets still breaks the calm in more than one city, due to the deteriorating humanitarian conditions of the citizens.
And after they were displaced to Khartoum on the impact of tribal confrontations in their country, tens of thousands of South Sudanese are heading to return to their country.
They describe themselves as stuck in a bottleneck, as they are not safe in Khartoum because of the ongoing conflict, and they cannot return to their villages, so they have become refugees near the common border.
Many in South Sudan worry about what might happen if fighting continues nearby.
“We fled to Sudan because of the violence in our country, but the war follows us wherever we go,” says Wole Ngok.
At the border, women cooked food in large cooking pots while teenagers walked the area.
Days after Ngok and her family arrived, she said, a man was beaten to death with sticks in a fight that began with a dispute over water.
Years of fighting between government and opposition forces in southern Sudan killed nearly 400,000 people and displaced millions until a peace agreement was signed nearly five years ago.
South Sudan has oil reserves worth billions of dollars, which it transports to international markets through a pipeline that runs through Sudan in territory controlled by the warring parties.
However, the most pressing concern is the tens of thousands of South Sudanese who are returning with no idea how they will return home to their towns and villages.
Renewal of support for the UN envoy to Sudan
Politically, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, renewed his support for his envoy to Sudan, expressing his “shock” at a message from the Sudanese army commander, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, in which he called for his replacement.
United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement, “The Secretary-General is shocked by the message he received (Friday) from Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan,” who has been fighting a war since the fifteenth of April with his opponent and former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commander of the Rapid Support Forces. .
“The Secretary-General is proud of the work done by Volker Berthes and affirms his full confidence in his Special Representative,” Dujarric added.
Neither the military nor the United Nations released official copies of the letter, which called for Berthes’ removal as Special Representative of the Secretary-General.
Thousands of supporters of the army and Islamists demonstrated against Perthes and the United Nations Mission in Sudan, after they protested repeatedly last year against “foreign interference” and demanded the dismissal of the UN envoy.
Similar protests erupted in the eastern city of Port Sudan.
And Peretz is currently in New York without receiving any information about the date of his return to Sudan, as the authorities have not issued visas for foreigners since the beginning of the war.
On Monday, the envoy warned before the Security Council that “the conflict is taking an increasingly ethnic turn, which threatens to prolong its duration, with implications for the region,” explaining that “in some parts of the country, the battles have revived societal tensions or caused conflicts between” ethnic groups.
The war that broke out on April 15 between the army and the Rapid Support Forces resulted in the deaths of more than 1,800 people, according to the non-governmental organization “Aclide”.
It also forced more than a million Sudanese to flee within the country ranked among the poorest in the world, while at least 300,000 others sought refuge in neighboring countries, which are also experiencing crises, according to United Nations data.
Clashes continue
On the ground, violent battles continue in Sudan between the army and the Rapid Support Forces on the fifth day of the ceasefire, which mediators announced Friday that it is witnessing a “significant improvement,” while the Sudanese army called on “all those who are able” to take up arms.
The army said in a statement: “We call upon all those who are retired in the armed forces, including officers and non-commissioned officers, and all those who are able to bear arms to go to the nearest military command to arm them in order to secure themselves, their sanctities, and their neighbors, and protect their honor.”
The statement stressed that the war waged by the army “is a war of cities that has no time limits.”
Since the first minutes of the truce, which came five weeks after the war broke out, residents of Khartoum have reported to AFP air strikes and artillery shelling.
The most violent day was likely Wednesday, when the Rapid Support Forces announced they had shot down an army plane, which responded by striking armored vehicles.
The Saudi and American mediators said in a statement on Friday that that day witnessed “grave violations” of the ceasefire by the army led by Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
Washington warned that it would impose “sanctions”.
The agreement provides for a “monitoring mechanism”, but so far no action has been announced against either party.
In hospitals in Khartoum and Darfur, the two regions most affected by the war, most of them are out of service. Those that have not been bombed suffer from a shortage of medicines and medical equipment, or have been occupied by one of the two parties.
The situation is particularly critical in Darfur, the western region on the border with Chad, which has already witnessed a bloody war during the beginning of the third millennium.
Witnesses said that “battles with all kinds of weapons” took place on Friday in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state.
