The United Nations has been informed by Sudan that the UN’s special representative in Sudan and the leader of the UN’s Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS), Volker Perthes, is now considered “persona non grata” in Sudan. As of today, “Mr. Volker Perthes… has been declared persona non grata by the Government of the Republic of Sudan,” the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated in a statement released on Thursday. According to the UN mission’s Twitter, Perthes spent Thursday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for a series of diplomatic consultations.
Last month’s letter from Sudanese army head Abdel Fattah al-Burhan purportedly asking the removal of his special envoy, Perthes, left UN chief Antonio Guterres “shocked,” as Guterres put it. “[Guterres] is proud of the work done by Volker Perthes and reaffirms his full confidence in his special representative,” stated UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric at the time. A former scholar, Perthes has led the UN mission in Sudan since 2021. He has strongly denied allegations that the UN has stoked the crisis, arguing that “the two generals at war” are to blame. Since April, the capital Khartoum and the western region of Darfur have been devastated by fighting between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Whole neighborhoods in Khartoum lack access to clean water, there are blackouts several times a week, and the majority of the city’s hospitals are closed due to the conflict. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that more than 1.4 million people have been displaced within Sudan and another 476,800 have fled to surrounding countries, most of which are already grappling with poverty and internal strife. At least 780 civilians have been killed as a direct result of the violence, according to the Sudanese health ministry. Hundreds more people have been slaughtered in the West Darfur city of el-Geneina.
The United Nations estimates that 25 million people in Sudan require humanitarian relief at the moment, which is more than half of the country’s population. As of late May, aid that may benefit roughly 2.2 million people has been delivered. The UN’s tenuous position in Sudan was brought into sharp focus last week when the Security Council opted to renew UNITAMS’ mandate for barely six months. UNITAMS’ mission has previously been extended annually for a year. The organization was established in June 2020 to aid in Sudan’s political transition following the overthrow of dictator Omar al-Bashir the previous year.
