Attack on ambassador is breach of Vienna Convention, EU says
EU and US officials have expressed alarm after high-profile diplomats were attacked during the unrest in Sudan.
The EU’s ambassador to Sudan was assaulted in his Khartoum home on Monday, said EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell.
On the same day, a US diplomatic convoy was fired upon in Sudan. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday described the attack on the vehicles as “reckless” and “irresponsible”.
EU spokeswoman Nabila Massrali told AFP that ambassador Aidan O’Hara, 58, was “OK” after he was attacked.
She said the EU delegation had not been evacuated from Khartoum after the assault.
But Mr Borrell tweeted: “This constitutes a gross violation of the Vienna Convention.”
People in the US convoy that was fired on were not injured, Mr Blinken said.
“All of our people are safe and unharmed. But this action was reckless, it was irresponsible and of course unsafe,” he said.
Yesterday marked the fourth day of fighting in a conflict that continues a seemingly endless cycle of violence in Sudan since it gained independence in 1956.
But Khartoum, a city of almost seven million, has never been the scene of an armed struggle of the magnitude seen since Saturday.
On Monday, UN Secretary
General Antonio Guterres again called on Sudan’s warring parties to “immediately cease hostilities”.
He said further escalation “could be devastating for the country and the region”.
Air strikes, artillery shelling and heavy gunfire are continuing in civilian neighbourhoods in the capital.
Fighting broke out at the weekend after army chief Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan insisted that the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces commanded by Gen Mohamed Dagalo integrate fully into the armed forces before the signing of a deal to end Sudan’s political crisis.
G7 foreign ministers yesterday joined the international calls for opposing sides to stop fighting and return to negotiations.
“We urge the parties to end hostilities immediately without preconditions,” the ministers said after two days of talks in Japan. “We call on all actors to renounce violence, return to negotiations, and take active steps to reduce tensions and ensure the safety of all civilians, including diplomatic and humanitarian personnel.”
Gen Dagalo spoke with Mr Blinken on the phone and “discussed pressing issues”.
“We will have another call to continuing dialogue and working hand- in- hand to forge a brighter future for our nations,” Gen Dagalo wrote on Twitter yesterday.
The general’s whereabouts have not been disclosed since Saturday when fighting broke out, Reuters reported.
Mr Blinken spoke separately to Gen Al Burhan, according to the State Department.
Mr Blinken expressed his grave concern about the death and injury of so many Sudanese civilians due to the sustained, indiscriminate fighting, and stressed the responsibility of the two generals to ensure the safety and well-being of civilians, diplomatic personnel, and humanitarian workers, spokesman Vedant Patel said.
The fighting is playing out in the wider context of monthslong, internationally sponsored efforts to end Sudan’s political crisis.
The deal’s blueprint provides for the military to quit politics, the RSF to be integrated into the armed forces and for a civilian prime minister to steer the country for two years until elections are held.