Diplomat is supposed to be fine
Attack on EU ambassador in Sudan
04/17/2023 11:29 p.m
Amidst the fighting in Sudan, the EU ambassador in Khartoum is attacked at his residence. There is initially no information about the circumstances of the attack. The EU foreign policy officer makes serious allegations against the country’s authorities.
According to EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, the EU ambassador to Sudan was attacked in his own residence. The act represents a serious violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, Borrell wrote on Twitter. The security of diplomatic premises and staff is primarily the responsibility of the Sudanese authorities and is an obligation under international law.
Borrell did not provide any information about the type of attack or the perpetrator or perpetrators. He also left it unclear whether the ambassador was injured or escaped with a fright. Borrell only wrote that the attack had happened a few hours earlier. The EU will be represented in the north-east African country by Irish diplomat Aidan O’Hara. Diplomatic circles said in Brussels that evening that O’Hara was fine and had not been injured.
Shortly before, Borrell had announced that the EU was trying to influence the conflicting parties in the domestic power struggle in view of the heavy fighting in Sudan. Work is underway to persuade both sides to consider a humanitarian ceasefire, he said. The civilians urgently need a ceasefire.
At least 185 dead so far
At least 185 people were killed and 1,800 injured in the fighting in Sudan that has been going on since the weekend, according to the United Nations on Monday. The trigger was the planned incorporation of the rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF) into the army; this is considered a key step in the plan to return power in the north-east African country to a civilian government. Tensions between Sudan’s military ruler, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and his deputy, RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, had recently escalated.
Sudan’s de facto ruler Al-Burhan has been in power since a military coup in October 2021. He deposed the government tasked with leading the transition to democratic elections after the ouster of longtime leader Omar al-Bashir in 2019. The anti-army RSF militia emerged from the Janjaweed militia that committed atrocities against civilians in southern Sudan’s Darfur region.