Sudan’s top general threatened to expel the U.N. envoy to the country, accusing him of what he calls a flagrant interference in the country’s affairs.
The comments by Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, head of Sudan’s ruling Sovereign Council, come less than a week after U.N. envoy Volker Perthes warned that Sudan was heading for “an economic and security collapse” unless it addresses the political paralysis.
Sudan plunged into turmoil following an October military coup led by Burhan removed a Western-backed transitional government.
The Oct. 25 military takeover upended Sudan’s democratic transition after a popular uprising forced the military to remove autocratic President Omar al-Bashir in April 2019.
Speaking at a ceremony for new graduates of Sudan’s military academy in the capital of Khartoum, Burhan called on Perthes to “stop exceeding the U.N. mission’s mandate and blatant interference in Sudanese affairs.”
A spokesman for the U.N. mission in Sudan declined to comment on Burhan’s remarks.
Burhan also called on the U.N. and the African Union to “facilitate dialogue among Sudanese and avoid exceeding their mandate and interfere in the country’s affairs.”
He reiterated that the generals “don’t want to rule the country alone” and said they have repeatedly called on protest groups and other political forces to engage in dialogue and achieve “national consensus.”
Perthes is leading international efforts to find a way out of the crisis in Sudan.
He told the U.N. Security Council on Monday that the absence of a political agreement on returning to a transitional path has already led to a deteriorating economic, humanitarian and security situation in the country.
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