JUBA, May 9 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan and Egypt on Tuesday called for concerted efforts among Sudan's neighbors and the international community to tackle the humanitarian crisis stemming from the conflict in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan.
Deng Dau Deng, South Sudan's acting minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation, said the unfolding humanitarian crisis due to conflict in Sudan is already straining the scarce resources within its neighbors to respond effectively to the influx of people fleeing fighting across the borders.
"The assessment has shown that there is a need for the immediate neighbors to take a special concern on the situation in Sudan, and President Salva Kiir has reaffirmed that he is very much concerned like Egypt because we are not only immediate neighbors to Sudan, but we have the pressure that we are receiving from the people that are leaving Khartoum and elsewhere in Sudan," Deng said during a press conference held in the South Sudanese capital of Juba with his Egyptian counterpart.
He said Kiir and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, during their recent conversation, discussed the concerns of countries like Chad, Eritrea, and Ethiopia over the conflict in Sudan.
"Any continuation of disintegration, any continuation of the war in Sudan will put pressure on our countries because we are very close neighbors to Sudan, and this is why all the efforts that are being done internationally have to be coordinated so that the beneficiaries, in the end, are Sudanese people," Deng added.
Sameh Hassan Shoukry, Egypt's minister of foreign affairs, who arrived in Juba from N'Djamena, the capital of Chad, stressed the need for close coordination between Egypt and South Sudan in resolving the situation in Sudan.
Shoukry said the two countries will push the Sudanese parties to consider an agreement on a sustainable ceasefire and a return to political dialogue.
"We will continue to coordinate and cooperate and to contribute to relieving this very critical situation, and to deal with the humanitarian consequences that both Egypt and South Sudan have had to bear related to the influx of a large number of Sudanese fleeing the conflict areas," he said.
Sudan has been witnessing deadly armed clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in Khartoum and other areas since April 15, with the two sides accusing each other of initiating the conflict.
So far, the deadly clashes have left at least 550 people dead and 4,926 others wounded, according to the Sudanese Ministry of Health.
