The move made by the military regime of Sudan by declaring the UN special envoy an undesirable person is “contrary” to the principles of the United Nations and “not applicable”, said the representative of the Secretary-General Antonio Guterres yesterday, clarifying that the status of the German diplomat Volker Pertes remains “unchanged”.

“The status of Mr. Pertes currently remains unchanged and the position of the Secretary General remains the one he expressed before the Security Council last week,” said Stéphane Dujarric, referring to the “absolute confidence” with which he underlined that he surrounds the expert entrusted to him by Mr. Guterres.

“The Secretary-General recalls that the doctrine of persona non grata is not applicable to United Nations personnel and its invocation is contrary to the obligations of States under the Charter of the United Nations,” he added.

Sudan’s army chief and the country’s de facto leader, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, demanded in late May that Mr. Pertes be removed from office, accusing him of being responsible for the outbreak of the April 15 war between the armed forces. and the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

On the night of Thursday into Friday, the Sudanese foreign ministry announced that Khartoum had “notified” Mr Guterres that it had declared Mr Pertes persona non grata “as of today”.

The special envoy, who was in New York when General Burhan demanded his removal from the post, has been holding talks in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) for the last few days. “We will inform about the developments regarding his movements,” said Mr. Dujarric.