AU rejects armed solution to the crisis in Sudan
The African Union (AU) has reiterated that there can be no military solution to the ongoing crisis in Sudan.
“The African Union has strongly condemned the ongoing brutal and unjustified conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, which has resulted in indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians, wanton destruction of infrastructure,” the AU said in a statement.
It said the conflict in Sudan has resulted in an unprecedented dire humanitarian situation and gross violations of International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law. The AU also stressed that there can be no military solution to the conflict and demanded the resumption of the political transition process culminating in the conduct of elections toward a democratic, civilian-led government. It further “firmly rejected all forms of external interference in Sudan.”
The statement came as AU Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat set to convene a high-level meeting to discuss the implementation of the African Union Roadmap for the Resolution of the Conflict in Sudan (AU Roadmap) on Wednesday. The meeting will bring together representatives from the AU, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the United Nations, the League of Arab States, the European Union, the permanent members of the UN Security Council (UNSC), the African members of the UNSC, Sudan’s neighboring countries, countries designated by the IGAD to engage the belligerents, and Comoros, among others. The meeting envisaged the next steps regarding the situation in Sudan, including the implementation of the AU Roadmap, in close collaboration with the Sudanese stakeholders, the AU said.
Sudan’s Civil Aviation Authority on Wednesday extended the closure of the country’s airspace to June 15 amid continued armed conflict between the Sudanese Army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. In a notice to airmen, or NOTAM, on Wednesday, the authority decided to extend the closure of airspace for all civil flights, with the exception of those carrying humanitarian aid. The authority said that the closure could be extended again in the future. Since the outbreak of the deadly armed clashes in the Sudanese capital Khartoum and other areas on April 15, the country’s airspace has been closed as air navigation systems at Khartoum International Airport have been affected.
More than 800 people have been killed, and nearly 1.4 million people have been forced to leave their homes since the conflict began, with more than one million people internally displaced and about 345,000 people crossing into neighboring countries for safety, said the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in its latest report on Sunday.
Since Sudan erupted into a conflict in mid-April between the army and a paramilitary group, most international attention has focused on the intense battle for the capital, Khartoum. But the fighting has also spread in the western province of Darfur, a conflict-weary militarised region the size of France. The unrest there, analysts warn, could destabilise neighbouring countries – in particular Chad – and reverberate across the wider Sahel region.
