UN Special Representative for Sudan, German diplomat Volker Perthes, has been declared persona non grata by the country’s military regime, the Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

“The Government of the Republic of the Sudan has notified the Secretary General of the United Nations that as of today it has declared Mr. Volker Perthes (…) persona non grata,” the junta’s military diplomacy press release said.

Mr. Perthes was in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, on Thursday for a series of diplomatic contacts, the UN announced earlier on Twitter.

Sudan’s army commander and de facto leader, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, recently demanded the resignation of Mr. Perthes, claiming he was responsible for starting the April 15 war between Sudan’s armed forces and paramilitaries. Operational Support Force (RSF) of General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

In his letter to the UN Secretary-General, General Burhan accused Mr. Perthes of, inter alia, of “covering up” the explosive situation in Khartoum in his reports, arguing that without his “lies” General Daglo “would not have started hostilities.”

After that, Mr. Guterres reaffirmed that he “absolutely trusts” his special envoy.

But in early June, the Security Council only extended for six months the mandate of the United Nations Integrated Assistance and Transition Mission in Sudan (MINUATS in French, UNITAMS in English), headed by Mr. Perthes.

Created in June 2020 to support the political transition in Sudan following the fall of Omar al-Bashir’s regime following massive protests, the mission’s mandate has since been extended by one year.

Source: RES-IPE