Global Courant 2023-05-13 01:03:20
A statement from Sudan’s warring factions committing to protecting civilians is an “important first step” after more than three weeks of heavy fighting, the top UN official in the African country said said Friday.
Volker Perthes – Special Representative of the Secretary General for Sudan and Head of the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in the country (UNITS) – stressed that the rival military leaders had agreed to respect international humanitarian and human rights law and withdraw fighters from hospitals and medical facilities.
Mr Perthes also noted that the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) had pledged to continue their talks in the Saudi city of Jeddah over a possible ceasefire.
In statement from his spokespersonUN Chief António Guterres, welcomed the Declaration of Commitment to protect civilians and ensure the safe passage of humanitarian aid:
“While humanitarian aid workers, especially local partners, have continued to deliver under very difficult circumstances, the Secretary-General hopes that this statement will ensure that the relief operation can quickly and safely expand to meet the needs of millions of people in Sudan.” , it said.
“It reiterates its call for an immediate ceasefire and extensive talks to reach a final cessation of hostilities.”
Hope for continuation of ceasefire negotiations
Speaking to reporters in Geneva via Zoom from Port Sudan, where the UN and partners have established a humanitarian center on the coast, Mr. Perthes that building on this first mutually signed statement, the aim was to achieve a ceasefire that would also be “mutually agreed”. ”, in contrast to previous unilaterally declared ceasefires.
He hoped that “within days” talks in Jeddah under the auspices of Saudi and US mediators would lead to such an agreement, giving it “more stability and more respect”, and with clear provisions on the modalities. related to the movement of troops and humanitarian pauses.
Commitments must be kept
Mr Perthes also expressed hope that the parties “will do what they can” to communicate through the chain of command that the humanitarian commitments agreed in Jeddah should be fulfilled.
The agreement was welcomed by the “trilateral mechanism” consisting of the United Nations, the African Union and the regional body known as the Intergovernmental Authority for Development in East Africa (IGAD).
More than 200,000 have fled
Meanwhile, the number of people who have fled Sudan has passed the 200,000 mark, the UN refugee agency reports (UNHCR) said on Friday.
There is a race against time to provide the refugees with emergency aid before the upcoming rainy season makes logistics even more difficult. Funding shortfalls exacerbate humanitarian challenges such as UNHCRThe company’s operations in neighboring countries were funded at only about 15 percent before the conflict.
Lifeline for malnourished children destroyed
In another example of the disastrous impact of the conflict on Sudan’s most vulnerable, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said Friday that a fire had destroyed a factory in Khartoum that produced ready-to-use therapeutic foods to treat children suffering from severe acute malnutrition.
According to UNICEF, the equivalent of food for some 14,500 children was lost in the fire, along with machinery, jeopardizing future production. The agency say that Sudan has one of the highest rates of child malnutrition in the world, with more than three million children suffering from acute malnutrition.
UNICEF spokesman James Elder said that in an overall response to the crisis, about 34,000 boxes of ready-to-eat therapeutic foods were en route from France to Sudan.
He said the cause of the factory fire was still unknown.
Warriors warned of the consequences: Perthes
In an Arab interview by the UN in Geneva with UNITAMS chief Volker Perthes on Friday, he said that before the outbreak of hostilities on April 15, there were warning signs of a possible conflict between the rival armies.
“We have warned both sides about this possibility and this scenario,” he said, and that if they started fighting, “the country and society will be destroyed.”
He said that while both sides might have thought the fighting would be short-lived, they now realized that victory “isn’t easy” and would ultimately be a loss for “much of the country”.
Distribution of life-saving aid
When asked how more humanitarian aid could be provided to the millions of needy people across Sudan, Mr. Perthes said the Jeddah deal was promising, but that access to the capital, Khartoum, was critical and impossible without secure humanitarian corridors.
“We therefore hope that yesterday’s agreement will indeed help to be put into practice through humanitarian agencies, the United Nations and their non-governmental organization partners.”
Regarding the pace of delivery, he said widespread looting in Sudan at the start of hostilities was a major handicap to the operation.
“Warehouses and cars were looted and trucks carrying aid from the east of the country or from the center to Darfur were also looted… when your office and car are looted, it is very difficult to help.
“Today there are new agreements, even in the preparations for supplying Darfur through Chad, which also require coordination with neighboring countries, with the state, with the armed movements in Darfur and other actors.”
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