Sudan

The UN Security Council on Friday extended for just six months the United Nations political mission in Sudan, after UN envoy Volker Perthes was accused by Sudan's army chief of stoking the worsening civil conflict.

The army and the RSF had agreed to extend a previous truce by five days just before it was due to expire late on Monday. The brokers of the cease-fire, Saudi Arabia and the United States, say it has been violated by both factions.

For the first time since fighting broke out in Sudan on 15 April, humanitarians have been able to reach desperate families trapped in the conflict’s epicentre, Khartoum, with food assistance, the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said he was “shocked” by a letter from Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan reportedly requesting the replacement of special envoy Volker Perthes. … Sources within Sudan’s foreign ministry told Al Jazeera that Perthes will not be allowed back into the war-torn country.

Sporadic clashes between the Sudanese army and a powerful paramilitary force spilled over into Thursday, puncturing the relative calm in the capital of Khartoum and raising the risk that a week-long internationally-brokered truce would crumble.

The “senseless” fighting in Sudan must stop now, and the warring generals have to insist on zero tolerance for sexual violence among their troops, the UN rights chief said on Wednesday.

In a briefing to the United Nations Security Council on Monday afternoon, Volker Perthes, the head of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS), placed the blame squarely on the leadership of both warring parties for the escalating conflict in Sudan. Perthes further urged an immediate end to the fighting, emphasizing that the responsibility for the ongoing violence rests with those who have chosen the battlefield over peaceful negotiations.

Volker Perthes, the head of the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission Sudan (UNITAMS), stated that the tripartite facilitation mechanism is coordinating several initiatives to end the armed conflict in Sudan.

The UN and humanitarian partners continue to scale up the aid response for the millions in need across Sudan on Tuesday, as news reports described heavy fighting in the capital Khartoum and neighbouring areas between the national army and rival RSF militia

[…] Sudan is awash with firearms. The country ranks second among its regional neighbours in total firearms estimates, with combined holdings among civilians and security forces topping out at over three million.