The United Nations special envoy for Sudan has resigned in a final speech to the UN Security Council, warning the conflict between Sudan’s rival military leaders “could be morphing into a full-scale civil war”.
Volker Perthes, who was declared unwelcome by the country’s military rulers but had continued to work outside Sudan, said on Thursday the fighting showed no sign of abating, with neither side appearing close to “a decisive military victory”.
He said the violence in Sudan's western Darfur region “has worsened dramatically”, with civilians targeted based on their ethnicity.
Tensions between Sudan’s military, led by General Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, burst into open fighting in mid-April.
At least 5000 people have been killed since then and more than 12,000 wounded, Perthes said, while calling the figures conservative and saying the actual number “is likely much higher”.
The envoy said there were at least 13 mass graves in and around Geneina, the capital of West Darfur’s province, according to credible reports the UN Joint Human Rights Office received.
The graves were a result of attacks by the RSF and their allied Arab militias on civilians, mostly African communities, Perthes said.
The western Darfur region was the scene of a genocidal campaign in the early 2000s.
More than 20 million people - almost half Sudan's population - are experiencing acute hunger and food insecurity, the UN humanitarian office’s operations director, Edem Wosornu, told the council.
“And more than six million people are now just one step away from famine,” she said.
“If the fighting continues, this potential tragedy comes closer to reality every day.”
The fighting has forced 4.1 million people to flee their homes to other places in Sudan and more than a million to seek refuge in neighbouring countries, Wosornu said, stressing that displacement and insecurity “have driven cases of sexual violence to distressing levels”.
Perthes was a key mediator after the conflict began, but the military government claimed he was biased and informed UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on June 8 that he was declared persona non grata.
The UN denounced the move, saying that a member of its personnel cannot be declared persona non grata - unacceptable to the government - and that this goes against the UN Charter.
In announcing his resignation, Perthes, who was appointed as special representative for Sudan in January 2021, urged the warring sides to end the fighting and warned them “they cannot operate with impunity”.
“There will be accountability for the crimes committed,” he said.
Guterres told a news conference that he had accepted Perthes’ resignation, saying, without elaborating, that the envoy “has very strong reasons to resign”.
Perthes also warned of “the risk of a fragmentation of the country,” pointing to a myriad of compounding crises including Darfur, the cross-border mobilisation of Arab tribes, fighting in the country's South Kordofan and Blue Nile provinces between the Sudanese military and rebels, and rising tensions in eastern Sudan amid ongoing tribal mobilisation.
He also added - referring to Sudan's longtime autocratic leader Omar al-Bashir who was deposed in a popular uprising in 2019 - that “the mobilisation by former regime elements advocating for a continuation of the war is of particular concern”.
