Calls come amid renewed attacks on Abu Shok camp in El Fasher and spread of fighting in Gezira state
MOGADISHU, Somalia
The African Union Commission chief Moussa Faki Mahamat has called the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces to immediately cease hostilities and participate in negotiations towards building and sustaining peace in Sudan.
He reaffirms the readiness of the continental bloc to continue to work with key national stakeholders, and regional and global actors to achieve a meaningful resolution to the current crisis in the country.
In a statement, the AU chief expressed concern at the deteriorating security situation in Sudan, in particular the reports of the renewed attacks on the Abu Shok camp for internally displaced persons in El Fasher, as well as the spread of the fighting to Wad Medani in Gezira state.
“The Chairperson notes with dismay, the reopening of traumatic wounds for many Darfurians, who for over the past twenty years, have lived in Abu Shok as a place of refuge, but fighting resumed there in recent days,” said the statement.
AU also said the attacks on the city of Wad Medani have opened up a new front in the Sudanese war that is now in its 9th month.
Wad Medani has welcomed millions of Sudanese civilians who have fled the fighting in Khartoum and many of them are being forced to flee for a second time since the outbreak of the conflict in April 2023.
Sudan has been mired by fighting between the army, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of the ruling Sovereign Council, and the RSF.
More than 12,000 people have been killed and over 33,000 injured as a result of the conflict, according to the UN.
Approximately 25 million people, half of the population, need humanitarian aid.
About 7 million people in Sudan have been displaced within the country or fled in search of security in neighboring countries.
