UN chief ‘shocked’ by letter from Sudan’s military ruler urging removal of special envoy

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres was "shocked" by a letter he received on Friday from Sudan's military ruler General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan demanding the removal of his ambassador to Sudan, according to his spokesperson.

"The Secretary-General is proud of the work done by (UN Special Representative to Sudan) Volker Perthes and reaffirms his full confidence in his Special Representative," said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric in a written statement on Friday.

Burhan had written to Guterres, requesting that Perthes be removed from his position, according to Reuters, citing officials in Sudan's presidency.

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Weeks of intense combat in Sudan between Burhan's Sudanese Armed Forces and the country's Rapid Support Forces commanded by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo have shattered expectations for a peaceful transition to civilian government, reported CNN.

Perthes, who was nominated to his position in 2021, has expressed deep worry about the dispute. He criticised both leaders of Sudan's warring groups in a presentation to the UN Security Council earlier this week, warning of "a growing ethnicisation of the conflict."

Despite a seven-day truce that is set to expire this weekend, combat between both sides has persisted. According to the US embassy in Khartoum, media have lately witnessed the use of artillery and military aircraft and drones, airstrikes, prolonged combat in the heart of the Khartoum Industrial Area, and battles in Zalingei, Darfur.

Perthes told the Security Council that blame for the violence "rests with those who are waging it daily: the leadership of the two sides who share accountability for choosing to settle their unresolved conflict on the battlefield rather than at the table."

According to UNICEF, the Sudanese violence has taken a devastating toll on civilians, with over 700 people killed, including 190 children, and 6,000 othersinjured.

Over a million people have been displaced, seeking refuge in rural regions, neighbouring Sudanese states, or crossing Sudanese borders.

Over one million displaced

According to the United Nations refugee agency, five weeks of violence in Sudan hasdisplaced more than one million people, including a quarter-million refugees.

Sudan has been at war since April 15, when differences between army leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamed Hamdan "Hemedti" Dagalo, erupted into an armed confrontation. Hundreds of people have been slain in the conflictthat hastransformed Khartoum's streets and other parts of the country into battlegrounds.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva on Friday, Matthew Saltmarsh, a spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said 843,000 people have been internally displaced as a result of the violence, reported Al Jazeera.

Around 250,000 people have left Sudan's borders, largely into Egypt, Chad, Ethiopia, and South Sudan, according to Saltmarsh, who said that Egypt has accepted the greatest number of Sudanese refugees so far, at around 110,000.

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