Sudan crisis: UN sending relief chief, truce extended further

Kathmandu: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is sending his Emergency Relief chief to Sudan amid ‘unprecedented’ situation there following the deadly hostilities between the rival factions.

‘The scale and speed of what is unfolding in Sudan is unprecedented in the country,’ Guterres wrote on Twitter as he announced his decision on Sunday, ‘In light of the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian crisis, I am sending @UNReliefChief [Martin Griffiths] to the region immediately.’

The announcement came as the army and heavily armed paramilitaries in Khartoum continued fighting, even as a widely breached ceasefire was extended for 72 hours.

Sudan’s army and its rival paramilitary said Sunday they will extend a humanitarian cease-fire for a further 72 hours. The decision follows international pressure to allow the safe passage of civilians and aid, but the shaky truce has not so far stopped the clashes.

UN emergency relief coordinator Martin Griffiths, who will serve as the envoy, said in a separate statement Sunday that Sudan’s ‘humanitarian situation is reaching breaking point.’

‘I am on my way to the region to explore how we can bring immediate relief to the millions of people whose lives have turned upside down overnight,’ he said.

Griffiths said the UN’s attempts to provide relief had been complicated by the looting of humanitarian offices and warehouses which had ‘depleted most of our supplies’, and that other options were being urgently explored.

More than 500 people have been killed and tens of thousands of people forced to leave their homes for safer locations within the country or abroad since battles erupted on April 15.

The fighting in Khartoum has so far seen RSF forces fan out across the city, and the army using mostly drones and fighter jets to target the group, pounding the city from the skies.

Many foreign governments have scrambled to evacuate their citizens from the country.