As the war in Sudan entered its fourth day between the army and the Rapid Support Forces, the two fighting parties renewed their rejection of mediation efforts, which was revealed by the UN envoy to Sudan, Volker Peretz, who ruled out that the two fighting parties wanted mediation for a permanent ceasefire.
Peretz said in a summary he submitted to the UN Security Council: The regional parties, especially IGAD, offered to mediate between the two sides, pointing out that the United Nations is cooperating very closely with IGAD, the African Union and the tripartite mechanism, in addition to other countries in the region and the League of Arab States.
He stated that there are difficulties in reaching Sudan, "and the mediators will not easily be able to come here, and to be very honest, the two warring sides do not give the impression that they want to mediate for peace between them now, but rather demand each other to surrender."
Regarding the field situation in Sudan, Peretz explained that the fighting is still confined to both sides of the conflict so far, and its arena is mainly the capital, Khartoum, although movements of some tribal militias have been observed, estimating the civilian casualties in the past three days at more than 180 dead.
The UN envoy warned of the deterioration of the humanitarian situation, stressing that the current conditions do not allow the delivery of any humanitarian aid, after targeting the headquarters of a number of UN agencies during the past 48 hours.
For his part, Norway's ambassador to Sudan, a member of the tripartite troika, Andre Stiansen, accused the parties in Sudan of not wanting the democratic transition process to take place. He told Al-Jazeera: The two parties to the conflict must implement the terms of the document they signed, which stipulate that they give up political work and support the democratic process.
He added: «This may seem naive, but it is the only way that will guarantee stability in Sudan, and this is what the people here want, and we have to be frank when we say that there are those who do not want that and this is something that must be addressed and we must be vigilant about how each party behaves, and part of it. Our analysis will lead us to the cause of the outbreak of fighting last Saturday ».
Okaz (New York, Khartoum) @okaz_online
