Britain and the United States called Monday for an “immediate cessation” of violence in Sudan, where fighting between the army and paramilitaries has killed nearly 100 people.
“There is a shared deep concern about the fighting… the threat that poses to civilians, that it poses to the Sudanese nation and potentially poses even to the region,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement alongside his British counterpart James Cleverly.
He said the fighting had been discussed with allies in the Middle East and Africa and there is “a very strong shared view about the need for generals… to ensure the protection of civilians and non-combatants as well as people from third countries.”
There was an agreement “on the need for an immediate ceasefire and a return to talks”, he added on the sidelines of the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting in the Japanese town of Karuizawa.
“The immediate future lies in the hands of the generals who are engaged in this fight,” Cleverly added.
“We call upon them to put peace first, to bring an end to the fighting, to get back to negotiations. That’s what the people of Sudan want, that’s what the people of Sudan deserve.”
The power struggle between two generals in Sudan and its associated violence escalated dramatically on Saturday and Sunday, with at least dozens of civilians and soldiers killed.
It remains unclear who has the upper hand in the power struggle, according to media reports, which said fighting around the Sudanese army’s general command in the capital Khartoum had intensified.
At least 83 people have died and 1,126 others have been injured in heavy fighting in Sudan between the army and the influential paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces, the World Health Organisation said on Sunday.
A Sudanese medical organisation said on Sunday that so far at least 56 civilians and dozens of soldiers had been killed.
