Sudan

With the conflict between rival militaries in Sudan entering its third month, the people of Darfur are “trapped in a living nightmare”, the UN’s top aid official has said. … He deplored spreading inter-communal violence in Darfur that threatens to reignite the ethnic tensions that stoked deadly conflict there 20 years ago.

The governor of West Darfur state and head of the Sudanese Alliance, Khamis Abdallah Abkar, was killed on Wednesday, two months after the start of the armed conflict between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Khartoum.

Fighting rocked several vulnerable cities in western Sudan on Wednesday in an expansion of the country's almost two-month-old war as the number of people who have fled their homes rose above two million.

Sudan's warring factions are not taking advantage of talks facilitated by the United States and Saudi Arabia meant to yield a permanent ceasefire they originally agreed, a senior U.S. State Department official said on Tuesday.

The ongoing conflict in Sudan has raised the spectre of ethnic violence and crimes against humanity, senior UN officials warned on Tuesday. UN Secretary-General António Guterres said he was deeply concerned about the increasing ethnic dimension, and appalled at reports of large scale violence in Darfur.

The Friends of Sudan group has voiced its unwavering support for Volker Perthes, the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy and head of UNITAMS, while strongly denouncing the decision by the Sudanese government to declare him persona non grata.

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.