Al-Burhan sacks Hemedti from Deputy of Council position: Sudanese Army
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The decision announced by the Sudanese Armed Forces came amid intensified fighting between the warring parties in Darfur.
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Chief of Sudanese Armed Forces Generals General Abdel Fattah Burhan and General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti) attend a military graduation ceremony of special forces, in Khartoum, Sudan on September 22, 2021. (AFP)
The head of the Sudanese Sovereignty Council and Chief of Sudan's Armed Forces, General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, relieved his rival, the leader of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti) from the position of deputy head of the council and replaced him with a member of the council and head of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, Malik Agar.
The Sudanese army announced the decision, which will go into effect immediately, in a tweet on Friday.
Read more: Sudan: A borderless conflict
أصدر رئيس،مجلس السيادة الفريق أول ركن عبدالفتاح البرهان اليوم مرسوماً دستوريا قضى بإعفاء نائب رئيس مجلس السيادة الانتقالي محمد حمدان دقلو من منصبه إعتباراً من اليوم ١٩ مايو ٢٠٢٣. pic.twitter.com/Fh9u2cXbvn
— القوات المسلحة السودانية - الإعلام العسكري (@GHQSudan) May 19, 2023
Burhan directed the General Secretariat of the Sovereignty Council and the relevant authorities in Sudan to put the constitutional decree into effect, according to a statement by the Sudanese News Agency.
The displacement of about a million Sudanese
On the humanitarian front, Matthew Saltmarsh, spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said that over one million people have been displaced due to the fighting in Sudan.
Saltmarsh explained in a Geneva briefing that 843,000 of the displaced population remained inside Sudan, while almost 250,000 fled to a foreign country.
"Many of those who have approached us are in a distressed state having been exposed to violence or traumatic conditions in Sudan, and having suffered arduous journeys," Saltmarsh said.
Read more: Clashes ongoing in Sudan as food insecurity looms
Likewise, the United Nations' World Food Program WFP announced that it is intensifying its operations in at least six regions in Sudan to help 4.9 million people at risk, in addition to those fleeing to Chad, Egypt and South Sudan.
WFP confirmed that nearly $56 million have been lost since the start of the fighting due to theft of food, cash, and fuel among other things.
The UN estimated that over half of Sudan's population are in need of humanitarian aid, noting that around $3 billion in emergency aid are required to assist the country and fleeing individials to the neighboring countries - whose number is expected to exceed one million this year.
Read more: 'Israel' eager to mediate ceasefire in Sudan: What are the reasons?
After one month of the conflict, about half of the population in #Sudan needs urgent assistance.
— UN OCHA Sudan (@UNOCHA_Sudan) May 17, 2023
This is 57% more than in the beginning of 2023.
Our revised Humanitarian Response Plan:https://t.co/vyHQNKIX1X pic.twitter.com/9sZJMY3IlU
UN condemns
Meanwhile, the United Nations Humanitarian Envoy, Martin Griffiths, denounced what he described as the numerous and dangerous violations of the agreement reached by the warring parties in Sudan last week.
During an interview with AFP, Griffiths welcomed the May 12 declaration signed in Saudi's Jeddah between the two parties of the conflict, which included a pledge to refrain from attacking humanitarian workers.
While aid delivery has increased, "there are breaches of the declaration however, which are important and egregious, and which have happened since the signing," he said.
"We are naturally enough building up a record of such events, and we will be talking to the two parties about them as the process goes forward," the Griffiths added.
He also noted that despite the conflict being just "a month in," the death toll is at around 1,000 people, mainly in clashes around Khartoum and Darfur.
Earlier today, violent clashes between the Sudanese army and the RSF in the city of Nyala, South Darfur in western Sudan, have left at least 10 civilian casualties.
Yesterday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov confirmed his country's readiness to help resolve the conflict in Sudan, stressing the possibility of providing a platform for negotiations if necessary.
