‘Heartbreaker’
Guterres spoke on the same day that his top humanitarian official, Martin Griffiths, was in Sudan, as neighboring South Sudan announced on Tuesday that the warring sides had agreed “in principle” to a seven-day ceasefire from May 4.
In a statement on Thursday morning, the army said it had “accepted” the proposed ceasefire extension, calling for “an African solution to the continent’s problems”.
But at my midnight, the RSF had not commented on the ceasefire and the military in its statement stressed that all its commitments were conditional on “respect for the conflict” by the other side.
Griffith arrives in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan – hitherto untouched by fighting – on an urgent mission to find ways to bring relief to the millions of Sudanese who are unable to flee.
He called for security guarantees “at the highest level” to ensure much-needed aid delivery to war-torn parts of the country.
The aid chief said he had been informed by the UN World Food Program that six trucks sent to the country’s western Darfur region had been “looted en route” on Wednesday “despite assurances of safety and security”.
Both Griffiths and the UN’s Sudan envoy, Volker Perthes, spoke by phone to Burhan and Daglo to reach people in need of aid, Griffiths tweeted.
Sudan’s warring sides have announced several ceasefires but none have effectively held, with the latest 72-hour ceasefire set to expire at 2200 GMT on Wednesday.
UN rights commissioner Volker Turk described the situation as “heartbreaking” and “devastating”.
