UN becomes embroiled in Sudan crisis

Sudan continues to suffer from the ongoing armed confrontation between the regular army led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces led by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, despite past announcements of a truce following mediation by Saudi Arabia and the United States. 

Now, however, the controversy surrounding Volker Perthes, the United Nations (UN) Special Representative for Sudan, has been added to the fray. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan wrote to UN Secretary General António Guterres to request Perthes' dismissal for allegedly misinforming him about the truce in the Sudanese conflict by "misinforming" about a possible consensus on the framework agreement. 

António Guterres said he was "shocked" by the letter sent by the Sudanese leader and expressed his support for Volker Perthes. Guterres said he was "proud of the work done by Perthes", reaffirming his full confidence in the UN Special Representative, as stated by Stéphane Dujarric, official spokesman for the UN Secretary-General. 

Al-Burhan's letter indicated that Volker Perthes had given "a negative impression of the role and impartiality of the international organisation" by "practising disinformation in his reports by claiming that there was a consensus on the framework agreement". Al-Burhan demanded that Guterres "choose an alternative to Perthes to preserve the relationship between the UN and Sudan", according to media reports including EFE.

The UN special representative for Sudan on Monday expressed support for the new ceasefire pact signed by the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces group and called on the sides involved to hold talks aimed at a "genuine ceasefire".

Following past ceasefire announcements, the warring sides have continued fighting, despite mediation efforts by Saudi Arabia and the United States. Riyadh and Washington on Tuesday reiterated their commitment to peace in Sudan, calling on both sides to "honour their commitments" in line with Monday's shaky ceasefire, which broke down on Wednesday with mutual accusations between the regular army and the Rapid Reaction Forces.

The current conflict stems from the dispute between the army and the Rapid Support Forces and the controversy over the lack of understanding over the integration of this paramilitary group into the armed forces, a very important point of the framework agreement signed in December, which sought the formation of a civilian government to return to the path of democratisation that was opened in the African country after the overthrow of Omar al-Bashir in 2019 following 30 years of iron rule, which ended after the intervention of the regular army itself to remove al-Bashir from power due to the popular uprising caused by the political, economic and social crisis that the country was going through, plunged in poverty and corruption. The transition process undertaken thereafter, with negotiations between the military faction and civil society, was abruptly interrupted by the October 2021 coup d'état by which General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan seized total power, causing the departure of Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok, who resigned in January 2022. 

For his part, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, while still the real strongman in Sudan, has in recent months sent out several messages indicating that the Sudanese army was committed to the democratic transition to civilian rule and that the armed forces themselves would step aside from political power once the democratic transition and the necessary elections had taken place. 

Nevertheless, according to Saudi Arabia and the United States, the mediating countries in the Sudanese conflict, the situation has improved since Wednesday, when there were serious violations of the last ceasefire that was announced, as the Saudi Foreign Ministry indicated in a joint official statement with the US administration published on the social network Twitter on Friday. "As facilitators, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States of America noted increased respect for the Agreement on a short-term ceasefire and humanitarian arrangements in Sudan," the official statement noted. The two sides agreed to a ceasefire on 20 May 2023, following talks in Jeddah, but the following days saw a succession of violent clashes. "Although the use of military aircraft and isolated firing was observed in Khartoum, the situation improved since 24 May when the ceasefire monitoring mechanism detected significant breaches of the agreement," the official joint US-Saudi note said.