A United Nations envoy has urged an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Sudan as the country’s brutal civil conflict approaches its third year.
Speaking on Wednesday ahead of a major international conference on Sudan in Berlin, Pekka Haavisto stressed that pausing hostilities is critical to easing the suffering of civilians caught in the violence. He noted that such a move would enable aid organisations to “get the aid to people, ordinary people in Sudan.”
Haavisto, recently appointed as Personal Envoy by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, also warned that a ceasefire would help halt the deployment of “very disturbing weapons, like drones.”
Describing the Berlin gathering as “an essential meeting for the international community that wants to help, but also wants to stop this war,” he emphasised the urgency of coordinated global action.
The conflict, which erupted in April 2023, has pitted Sudan’s military, led by Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan, against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces commanded by Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, in a fierce struggle for control.
Haavisto disclosed that he had recently held separate meetings with both leaders, al-Burhan in Khartoum and Daglo in Nairobi, but neither is expected to attend the Berlin talks.
The conference, bringing together leaders from Europe and Africa alongside civil society actors, aims to revive diplomatic efforts to end the crisis and ensure that Sudan’s plight, described by the UN as the world’s most severe humanitarian emergency, remains in global focus despite ongoing conflicts in Iran and Ukraine.
