U.N. urges Sudan's warring parties to honour the new 7-day ceasefire

 

The United Nations (UN) envoy for Sudan, Volker Perthes, urged the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to honour a seven-day ceasefire that began Monday night.

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Sudan, Volker Perthes, told the U.N. Security Council, one of the main principal organs of the United Nations, that the conflict in Sudan has shown no signs of slowing down despite previous declarations of cease-fires.

The UN envoy claimed that all the previous truces were violated by both parties. He urged Sudan's warring parties to honour the latest truce.

Monday's cease-fire is the seventh ceasefire announced by the United States and Saudi Arabia. Two Sudanese rivals have signed the latest truce.

On Saturday, the Sudanese army, led by General Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, signed the 7-day ceasefire that started on Monday.

The representatives of the Sudanese warring parties started talks about the Sudanese conflict in Jeddah, a Saudi Arabian port city on the Red Sea. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States urged the two parties to sign the truce.

The US and Saudi Arabia said in a joint statement, “The two parties have conveyed to the Saudi and US facilitators their commitment not to seek military advantage during the 48-hour notification period after signing the agreement and prior to the start of the ceasefire.”

The ceasefire came into effect on Monday at 9:45 pm local time in Sudan. Under the ceasefire, the two sides agreed to not capture new areas in Sudan, to allow continuous lifesaving assistance for civilians in Sudan, and not to seize critical infrastructure like electricity, fuel and water installations.

The two sides made it clear that they would not stop fighting. They also promised not to violate  the ceasefire terms.