According to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the top United Nations humanitarian official is headed to the Sudan region due to the quickly developing impact of the war there and its wider ramifications.
As warplanes roared overhead and fighting continued on the ground in Sudan’s capital, rival Sudanese forces announced the extension of a truce they had largely violated.
“The scale and speed of what is unfolding is unprecedented in Sudan. We are extremely concerned by the immediate as well as long-term impact on all people in Sudan, and the broader region,” Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman for Guterres, said in a statement.
He stated that the UN Secretary-General was “immediately” sent Martin Griffiths, his emergency relief coordinator, to the area “in light of the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian crisis in Sudan.”
The army’s clashes with highly armed paramilitaries in Khartoum and other parts of the country have reached their third week.
The current extensively violated truce was set to technically expire at midnight (2200 GMT) before rival forces declared a 72-hour extension, which the Sudanese army attributed to “US and Saudi mediation.”
Since April 15, more than 500 people have been killed, and tens of thousands have been forced to flee their homes for safer locations within the country or abroad.
