The UN secretary-general has urged Sudan’s rival factions to agree a lasting ceasefire to prevent the war developing into a broader regional crisis.
“The fighting needs to stop — now — before more people die and this conflict explodes into an all-out war that could damage the region for years to come,” António Guterres said at the UN Africa headquarters in Nairobi on Wednesday, urging Sudan’s warring factions to allow safe passage for humanitarian operations.
His comments come as the opposing forces agreed, in principle, to a week-long ceasefire starting on Thursday. It was announced late on Tuesday by neighbouring South Sudan, which brokered the deal on behalf of the regional trade body, IGAD. According to South Sudan’s foreign ministry, Salva Kiir, the president and former rebel leader before the country won independence from its northern neighbour in 2011, said both sides gave a nod to “peace talks to be held at an agreed venue”.
Fighting broke out between forces led by Sudan’s de facto president and army chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the chief of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemeti, nearly three weeks ago. Diplomats and analysts are sceptical about whether the seven-day ceasefire will hold. Previous ceasefires, running from 24 to 72 hours, including one ending on Wednesday, have been consistently broken.
“We have not yet seen any lasting ceasefire in Sudan. The present situation is totally unacceptable,” Guterres said, adding that a “lasting ceasefire needs to take place [and] a dialogue needs to be established”.
As air strikes continued over Khartoum, a resident said the battling forces have “destroyed” the northern areas of the capital following 18 days of fighting, during which almost 530 people have been killed nationwide.
The fighting risks developing into a broader regional disaster as Sudan faces a deepening humanitarian crisis and its neighbours cope with an influx of refugees.
According to the UN, about 334,000 people are estimated to have been internally displaced and more than 100,000 have fled to neighbouring countries. “Unfortunately, we are seeing a situation that is out of control and humanitarian aid needs secure access to all people in need. I am not that confident that it will happen,” Guterres said.
Six trucks of humanitarian supplies were recently looted in Khartoum, the UN said.
The UN humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, arrived in Port Sudan on Wednesday and the World Food Programme said it was resuming work after some of its staff were killed. “The risk is that this is not just going to be a Sudan crisis, it’s going to be a regional crisis,” said Michael Dunford, the WFP’s east Africa director.
Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have long sought to influence Sudan’s ruling generals and have also helped to broker failed ceasefires alongside the US, UK, the UN, the African Union and IGAD.
Guterres said regional countries should continue to engage with Sudan’s generals in an effort to end the conflict. “All need to use their capacity to put pressure for this horrible, unjustified conflict to stop,” Guterres said.
Former prime minister Abdalla Hamdok, who was deposed by Burhan and Hemeti in January 2022, said “the war can be stopped at an early stage if all efforts are combined”, warning that a “spillover” could be “damaging to the whole world”.
Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi told Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun that Cairo would “provide support for dialogue among the Sudanese to end the fighting” but his country “will not interfere in the domestic politics of other nations because we do not want to further complicate the situation”.