HAMILTON, Canada

The UN chief on Friday expressed hope that the Sudanese army forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) would agree to a seven-day humanitarian ceasefire in the city of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state in western Sudan.

"We have a dramatic situation in El Fasher," said Antonio Guterres during a news conference at UN headquarters in New York, citing a recent attack on an aid convoy of UNICEF and the World Food Programme (WFP).

Emphasizing that the people in Sudan "are starving," Guterres also noted that they are "in an extremely difficult situation."

"We need to have an amount of time of truce for aid to be distributed," he said, adding that it needs to be agreed upon "with some days in advance to prepare a massive delivery in the El Fasher area."

"I am hopeful that I had a positive answer from (Sovereign Council Chairman Abdel Fattah) Gen. al-Burhan," he said, adding that he is "hopeful that both sides will understand how vital it is to avoid the catastrophe that we are witnessing in El-Fasher."

His remarks came after Sudan's Sovereign Council announced approval of a seven-day humanitarian ceasefire in the city of El-Fasher.

The RSF has not issued any immediate comment.

Since May 10, 2024, fierce clashes have erupted between Sudanese army forces and the RSF in El-Fasher, despite international warnings about the fighting in the city, a crucial hub for humanitarian operations across the five Darfur states.

The army and RSF have been fighting a war since mid-April 2023 that has killed more than 20,000 victims and displaced 14 million, according to the UN and local authorities. Research from US universities, however, estimates the death toll at around 130,000.