KHARTOUM, June 9, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - The Sudanese government has declared 
United Nations envoy Volker Perthes "persona non grata", two weeks after the 
army chief accused him of stoking the country's civil conflict and sought to 
have him removed from his post.

Since late last year, Perthes and the UN mission he heads in war-torn Sudan 
have been targeted by military and Islamist-backed protests denouncing 
perceived foreign interference.

In a letter to the UN last month, Sudan's de facto leader General Abdel 
Fattah al-Burhan blamed the envoy for exacerbating fighting between his army 
and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by commander Mohamed 
Hamdan Daglo.

UN chief Antonio Guterres has repeatedly defended Perthes, who earned ire 
after criticising both leaders of Sudan's warring parties as the two-month 
conflict evades efforts to broker a humanitarian ceasefire.

"The Government of the Republic of Sudan has notified the Secretary-General 
of the United Nations that it has declared Mr. Volker Perthes ... persona non 
grata as of today," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on 
Thursday.

Perthes was in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Thursday for a series of diplomatic 
talks, according to the UN mission's Twitter feed. 

Last week, the precarity of the UN's status in Sudan was highlighted when the 
Security Council voted to extend the UN Integrated Transition Assistance 
Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS) for only six months. 

Created in June 2020 to support Sudan's democratic transition after the fall 
of Islamist-military ruler Omar al-Bashir a year earlier, UNITAMS's mandate 
had previously been renewed annually for a year.

Sudan's stuttering path to civilian rule was disrupted in 2021 when Burhan 
and Daglo together seized power in a coup before falling out.

- Spiraling humanitarian crisis -

Since April, fighting between the army and the RSF has gripped Khartoum and 
the western region of Darfur, defying a series of truces. 

Upwards of 1,800 people have been killed, according to the Armed Conflict 
Location and Event Data Project, and the UN says 1.2 million have been 
displaced, with more than 425,000 fleeing abroad.

Those unable to leave have been forced to camp out for weeks as supplies of 
food and other vital goods have been depleted.

Entire districts of Khartoum no longer have running water, electricity is 
only available for a few hours a week and three-quarters of the hospitals in 
combat zones are not functioning.

The most recent truce was agreed to allow desperately needed humanitarian aid 
into areas of Sudan ravaged by the fighting, but like all those that 
preceded, the accord was routinely violated by both sides.

The UN estimates around 25 million people -- more than half of Sudan's 
population -- are now in need of aid and protection in what was already one 
of the world's poorest countries before the conflict.

Perthes, a former academic who has headed the Sudan mission since 2021, has 
staunchly defended the UN against accusations of inflaming the conflict, 
saying those responsible are "the two generals at war".

In his letter to Guterres, Burhan accused Perthes of bias and of not 
respecting "national sovereignty". 

He said Perthes presented a misleading picture "of consensus" in his reports 
to the UN, and "without these signs of encouragement, the rebel leader Daglo 
would not have launched his military operations".

It has never been possible to verify who fired the first shots of the war.

- Deputy turned rival -

Daglo, an ambitious militia leader originally armed by Bashir to crush rebels 
in Darfur, was Burhan's second-in-command before the two fell out.

Islamist and pro-Bashir television channels in exile now accuse Burhan of 
giving too much leeway to Daglo, while pro-democracy voices accuse Burhan of 
being a Trojan horse for Islamists from Bashir's regime.

Several high-ranking officials from the Bashir era have found roles in 
Burhan's administration since the coup.

Burhan officially sacked Daglo as his deputy in the ruling Sovereign Council 
last month, replacing him with former rebel leader Malik Agar.

With the fighting intensifying, the army is now also seeking to reinforce its 
ranks, calling on "army pensioners" and reservists to head to command units.