Sudan army chief meets UN envoy, calls for neutrality

Sudan’s army chief General Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhan yesterday met with the head of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission Sudan (UNITAMS), Volker Perthes, and called on the UN mission to remain neutral in its position on the situation in the African country.

The meeting came a day after Al-Burhan threatened to expel the UN official over what he described as “blatant interference” in the country’s affairs.

A statement issued by the ruling Sovereign Council led by Al-Burhan said the meeting discussed the briefing given by Perthes at the UN Security Council on the situation in Sudan.

According to the statement, Al-Burhan said the briefing was not comprehensive to the overall situation in the country, nor did it include the positive indicators that occurred on the ground.

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Last Monday, Perthes warned the Security Council that Sudan will head towards economic and security collapse as well as significant humanitarian suffering, “unless the current trajectory is corrected”.

He said his facts derived from information and reports prepared by his office in Khartoum. Perthes also expressed willingness to “review any inaccurate information contained in the report he had submitted to the Security Council.”

Sudan has been in turmoil since 25 October 2021, when the military dismissed Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok’s transitional government and declared a state of emergency, in a move decried by political groups as a “military coup”.

Prior to the military takeover, Sudan was governed by a sovereign council of military and civilian officials tasked with overseeing the transition period until elections in 2023.