Jakarta –
The United Nations (UN) reported the number of victims killed in clashes between the military and paramilitaries in Sudan to 185 people. This condition made UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres ask the warring parties to make peace.
The violence, which erupted Saturday (15/4), raged for a third day into Monday, with the death toll rising to at least 185, said Volker Perthes, UN special representative for Sudan, to journalists.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on the warring parties in Sudan to immediately cease hostilities. Because his envoy to Khartoum said at least 185 people died as a result of the fighting.
The UN secretary general said a further escalation of the conflict between the army and paramilitary forces, led by rival generals, “could devastate the country and the region.”
The fighting broke out after weeks of a power struggle between the two generals who seized power in a 2021 coup: Sudan’s army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and his deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commanded the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
“I am in constant touch with the leaders of both sides,” Perthes told reporters at UN headquarters in New York, via video link from the Sudanese capital.
The United Nations has suspended most of its operations in the country, said Guterres spokesman Stephane Dujarric, stressing that the UN “will not ask staff to go to work when it is clear their safety is not guaranteed.”
“This new battle has only exacerbated an already fragile situation, forcing UN agencies and our humanitarian partners to temporarily close more than 250 of our programs across Sudan,” UN emergency relief coordinator Martin Griffiths said in a statement.
“The impact of this suspension will be felt immediately, especially in the areas of food security and nutrition support, in a country where some 4 million children and pregnant and lactating women are severely malnourished,” he added.
The UN Security Council held a closed meeting on the situation in Sudan early Monday.
(aik/aik)
