The United Nations aid chief has said it will be difficult to secure an end to the fighting in Sudan, as the warring parties are keen to “keep it going”.
Martin Griffiths was speaking to the BBC after visiting Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast.
He said it was “really, really, deeply concerning” the speed with which the crisis was “going viral”.
“And the way in which all these efforts to get national ceasefires have all stumbled, presumably, over the sort of rigid existential fact that those at war are keen to keep going,” he said.
He said he had asked the rival generals who are fighting for control to meet him face-to-face to discuss urgent delivery of humanitarian aid.
He said the two rival parties spoke of their attachment to humanitarian principles – but there didn’t seem to be a will to end the war.
A new seven-day truce is due to start – but previous ceasefires have broken down.
Mr Griffiths said he’d heard stories of traumatic atrocities that were likely to lead to what he called a generational problem with reconciliation.