Sudan witnessing ‘most brutal' civil war: UN emergency relief coordinator

Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, said yesterday that Sudan is witnessing a “civil war … of the most brutal kind,” the Associated Press reported.

Griffiths told AP that the world needs a forum so that talks could be conducted for reaching a ceasefire in Sudan.

“We don’t have a place, a forum, where the two parties are present … where we can broker the kind of basic agreements that we need to move supplies and people.”

The UN official’s statements come after the region’s leaders met in Ethiopia after the collapse of the talks hosted by Saudi Arabia in June. Egypt has said it will host the leaders of countries neighbouring Sudan on Thursday.

The IGAD Quartet’s peace talks, which are being boycotted by the Sudanese army, kicked off in Addis Ababa yesterday.

Based in Djibouti, IGAD was founded in 1969. It comprises Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Somalia, Eritrea, Sudan and South Sudan.

A military conflict between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has killed more than 3,000, mostly civilians, since April and displaced 2.8 million people.

READ: Regional leaders meet in Ethiopia to discuss Sudan peace prospects