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UN Official Calls for Negotiated Settlement in Sudan

A senior United Nations official for Africa has called for a negotiated solution to the conflict in Sudan, saying there is no alternative, Voice of America reports. "Calls by some to continue the war in order to achieve a military victory will only contribute to destroying the country," U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Africa, Martha Pobee, told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday August 9, 2023.

The United Nations says 24 million people in Sudan are in need of humanitarian assistance. "Humanitarian organisations are ready and willing to do everything it takes to provide the assistance that the people of Sudan so desperately need," said Edem Wosornu, director of the Operations and Advocacy Division in the U.N. Office of Humanitarian Affairs. "But they cannot do so without the regular facilitation of access by the parties, and the easing of bureaucratic and administrative impediments."

Originally, the Security Council expected to be briefed by the head of the U.N. mission in Sudan, Volker Perthes. But in late May, the Sudanese government declared him persona non grata while he was outside the country. Sudan's ambassador told reporters it was because of statements Perthes made on news channel Al Jazeera about the government's inability to maintain the country's unity and its having lost trust with regional countries.

Perthes continues to lead the mission, known as UNITAMS, but he has been based elsewhere in the region.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters that Khartoum threatened to end the U.N. mission in Sudan if Perthes participated in Wednesday's meeting. "And that was really outrageous, and I did make that point in the Council," she said. "No country should be able to bully a briefer into silence, let alone the United Nations."

Sudan's ambassador disputed the accusation, saying his government did not bully anyone.

In a separate development, Chadian President Mahamat Idris Deby hosted the foreign ministers of Sudan's neighbouring countries for the first session of the Ministerial Mechanism for Sudan. The meeting addressed the situation in Sudan across three key areas: security, the political landscape, and humanitarian context.

InFocus

Peter Bateman / UNMISS

South Sudanese refugees are returning home following unrest in Sudan (file photo).

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