The Secretary of the United States Department of State, Anthony Blinkenconfirmed this Tuesday an attack on a US diplomatic convoy in the context of the conflict in Sudan between the Sudanese Army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
“Yesterday (Monday), a US diplomatic convoy was fired upon. All people are safe,” he told reporters from Japan, where he is at a summit of G7 foreign ministers.
Blinken, who indicated that the incident is being investigateddescribed the attack as “reckless, irresponsible and unsafe”, according to the television network abc.
All the threats in which our diplomats were involved have been resolved”said Blinken, who also declined to elaborate on an incident “that is still under investigation to try to determine what exactly happened.”
The first reports indicate that the attack was the responsibility of forces associated with the FAR, according to Blinken, who in the last hours had separately contacted the commanders of the two armies involved in the conflict in Sudan to convey to them that “any attack of this type is totally unacceptable”.
Blinken explained that he spoke by phone with the heads of the FAR and the Sudanese Armed Forces, to ask them “the cessation of all hostilities immediately and without putting any prerequisites”.
This appeal coincides with another included in the joint declaration adopted this Tuesday by the G7 foreign ministers, and which urges a ceasefire and a return to dialogue in Sudan on the same terms.
“We urge the parties to end hostilities immediately and without preconditions. We call for them to renounce violence, return to negotiations and take active measures to reduce tensions”, stated the joint declaration adopted at the end of the Foreign Affairs meeting that the Group of Seven held in the Japanese city of Karuizawa.
More than 180 civilians have been killed and more than 1,800 wounded during the three days of fighting in Sudan, according to data from the UN special envoy to the African country, Volker Perthes.
The clashes come after weeks of tensions between the army and the FAR over the reform of the security forces during negotiations for a new transitional government.
Both military forces were responsible for jointly overthrowing Sudan’s transitional government in October 2021.
(With information from EFE and Europa Press)
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