Sudan: Its Border & Sovereignty Should Be Respected - Press conference | United Nations

Press Conference by Pekka Haavisto, Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General for Sudan, on the situation in the country. Haavisto expressed alarm about ongoing hostilities around the city of El-Obeid, in North Kordofan State, and warned “a further escalation of the situation would place thousands of people at the risk.” Haavisto told reporters in New York that hostilities, including frequent drone strikes, “are already affecting the civilians and affecting too humanitarian aid to the city.” He said, “unfortunately, the situation reminds a little bit of the earlier developments in Darfur and around El-Fasher and reminds that there are immediate risks for the civilian population.” The using of the drones, the Special Envoy said, “has been increasing and the drone attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure has been increasing,” adding that these drones “are not Sudan made. They come from the international market.” He expressed hope that the so-called Quad (United States, Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt) “could advance with the humanitarian truce, which would help a lot the civilian situation on the ground, but also, help a lot our other goals to have a peaceful solution to the conflict.” Haavisto said both the head of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo (Hemedti) and the Commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, “still think that something can be achieved militarily in this conflict.” To conclude, he said, “there should be one Sudan. Its border should be respected. Its sovereignty should be respected. This would be a Sudanese owned, Sudanese led process in the end of the day. And what we are trying to do as United Nations and as a quintet, of course, is helping Sudanese to find a path towards that kind of future. And that's our starting point.”


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