Sudan's Burhan denied US visa for UN, sources say

The United States has refused to give Sudan's de facto leader, army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, a visa to travel to New York to address the UN General Assembly, sources told AFP.

Burhan, whose army has fought the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces since April 2023, was scheduled to address the assembly on Wednesday. He has addressed the UN twice since the war began.

One diplomatic source said withholding the visa was a clear violation of the agreement between the United States and the United Nations over the UN headquarters in New York. That agreement says the United States should not impose impediments on travel by member state representatives.

Another diplomatic source said Washington had conditioned the visa on Burhan accepting a three-month truce. Sudan's government says such a truce would allow the Rapid Support Forces to regroup and attack.

The US State Department did not mention the visa issue in a statement on Tuesday. It said neither the army, the Rapid Support Forces nor their leaders represented legitimate constitutional governance for Sudan. Spokesman Tommy Pigott said that, with both sides rejecting Washington's call for a humanitarian truce, the United States would seek to raise the cost of continued conflict on all belligerents and the networks that support them.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was deeply concerned that the visa had not been issued, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. He said Guterres urged the host country to issue visas in line with its obligations in time for Burhan to take part in person in the General Assembly's work.

Sudan is being represented in New York by Foreign Minister Mohieldin Salem.

The United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates have tried to bring Burhan and Rapid Support Forces commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo to the negotiating table. Burhan's internationally recognised government cemented power in a 2021 coup with Daglo's support, but the two later fell out in a power struggle.

Aid workers estimate the war has killed more than 200,000 people since 2023 and caused the world's largest hunger and displacement crises.