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UN: Sudan crisis could worsen if paramilitaries declare parallel govt

Africa

By AFP | Feb 20, 2025

SPLM-N leader Abdel Aziz Al-Hilu, Rapid Support Forces deputy commander Major Gen Abdul Rahim Hamdan Dagalo, and Sudan's National Umma Party leaders Fadlallah Burma at KICC, Nairobi, on February 18, 2025. [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

The crisis in Sudan could worsen if paramilitary forces fighting the army go ahead with plans to declare a parallel government, the United Nations warned Wednesday.

"For us, preserving the unity of Sudan, the sovereignty and the territorial integrity, remains a key ingredient for a sustainable resolution of the conflict," the UN secretary-general's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

At a high-profile event in Nairobi this week, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, at war with the Sudanese army for nearly two years, said they would sign a founding charter that would lead to the formation of a "peace and unity government" in Sudan.

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Initially scheduled for Tuesday at Nairobi's state-owned Kenyatta International Convention Centre, the signing was postponed to Friday.

"We're very deeply concerned about any further escalation of the Sudanese conflict, and any steps like this one, which would increase the fragmentation of the country and risk making this crisis even worse," Dujarric said of the planned proclamation.

Sudan's Foreign Ministry, loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, criticized Kenya for allowing the event.

Since April 2023, the war between the army and RSF has killed tens of thousands of people, uprooted more than 12 million and created the world's largest hunger and displacement crises.