The United Nations (UN) envoy for Sudan on Monday told the Security Council that the country may risk sliding into an economic and security collapse and a worse humanitarian crisis unless the current political situation is corrected, reported The UN News.
“Unless the current trajectory is corrected, Sudan will head towards economic and security collapse as well as significant humanitarian suffering,” Volker Perthes, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Sudan, warned.
Sudan has been without a functioning government since the military takeover in October 2021.
Perthes, also the head of the UN’s transitional Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS), said the UN-led broad consultations on a political process involving more than 800 participants from all parts of the country have found visible consensus on many issues, including on the need to end the violence, establish a technocratic Government and an oversight body, and adopt critical legislation.
He said there was also a wide-reaching agreement on the need to reconsider the Sovereignty Council’s role, size, and membership. The council has been functioning as the collective head of state for a 39-month transitional period, scheduled to end in November 2022.
Perthes said the UN, the African Union (AU), and the eight-nation east African regional group called the Intergovernmental Authority in Development have agreed to join efforts to facilitate Sudanese-led political talks.
The UN envoy said the aim is to return to constitutional order and a transitional path, with an empowered civilian-led government to steer the country through the transitional period. He added that for the talks to succeed, favorable conditions must be created in Sudan including an end to violence, ensuring the right to demonstrate peacefully, the release of political detainees, and a firm commitment to phase out the military’s current state of emergency in the country.
Perthes said an intensive phase of talks is expected to be held in the next couple of weeks, most probably during the holy month of Ramadan.
