Sudan: AU Calls for Immediate Ceasefire

On Monday, the African Union (AU) expressed concern over the deteriorating security situation in Sudan, as it called on the warring parties in the country to immediately end hostilities.

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The statement was made by the AU Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat, expressing his concern over the expanding conflict in the country.

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," an AU statement issued Monday read.

Noting the deteriorating security situation in Sudan, Faki, in particular, expressed concern over recent reports of the renewed attacks on the Abu Shouk camp for internally displaced persons, as well as the spread of the fighting to Wad Medani in Gezira state.

"Similarly, attacks on Wad Medani have opened up a new front in the Sudanese war that is now in its ninth month," the chairperson said.

The Wad Medani area has hosted millions of Sudanese civilians fleeing fighting in the capital Khartoum in recent months, Faki said, adding that many previously displaced people are being forced to flee for the second time since the outbreak of conflict in April 2023.

The AU Commission chairperson called on the warring parties in Sudan, the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, "to immediately cease hostilities and participate meaningfully in negotiations towards building and sustaining peace in Sudan."

He reaffirmed the readiness of the AU to continue to work with key national stakeholders, and regional and global actors including the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, the League of Arab States and the United Nations, toward the swift resolution of the conflict in Sudan.