Sudan’s military ruler al-Burhan accuses the German UN special envoy Perthes of being responsible for starting the fighting in the country. Now the government has declared him an undesirable person.
The government of Sudan has declared German UN special envoy Volker Perthes an undesirable person. “The government of the Republic of Sudan has informed the Secretary-General of the United Nations that, effective today, it has declared Mr. Volker Perthes persona non grata,” the Foreign Ministry in Khartoum said.
The military ruler, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, had called for Perthes’ ouster and blamed him for starting fighting between his army and the paramilitary RSF militia in mid-April. Perthes was in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Thursday for a series of diplomatic talks, the UN said earlier on Twitter.
Guterres had expressed “full confidence” in Perthes
In a letter to the United Nations, al-Burhan accused the UN representative of having “concealed” the explosive situation in Khartoum in his reports before the fighting began. Without these “lies” the rebel leader (Mohamed Hamdan) “Daglo would not have started his military actions”, argued the military ruler.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres then expressed his “full confidence” in his envoy. At the beginning of June, the UN Security Council extended the mandate of the UN mission in Sudan (Unitams), which is led by Perthes, but by only six months. Previously, the mission created in June 2020 had always been extended by twelve months.