• South Sudan: President Salva Kiir dissolved yesterday evening, Tuesday, the transitional government and appointed a caretaker government in preparation for the elections scheduled for December 22, 2026 — he dismissed the five vice presidents (including Riek Machar, suspended from his post since 2025 and on trial in Juba), dissolved the Transitional Legislative Council and the governments of the ten states, and appointed 13 caretaker ministers including Africano Mande Gedima (Presidential Affairs), Martin Elia Lomuro (Cabinet Affairs), Cecilia Adut Manyok (Foreign Affairs), Awer Akotch Anouk (Defence), Rizk Zakaria Hassan (Interior), Athian Diing Athian (Finance), Awu Daniel Chuang (Petroleum) — in addition to interim governors for the ten states and administrators for the three administrative areas (Abyei, Pibor, Ruweng); the step comes one day after he signed amendments to the elections law allowing voting without a permanent constitution or population census, amid rejection by the South Sudanese opposition alliance and tightened security in Juba. (Source: Catholic Radio Network CRN, Agence France-Presse — September 22/23)

• Juba: today, Wednesday, the 115th session of the special court trying Riek Machar and seven co-defendants resumes — the session had been adjourned to today after the defence raised security concerns for the safety of the defence team and the eight defendants, and two defendants were absent from the previous session (the suspended Oil Minister Puot Kang and General Gabriel Duop Lam) for health reasons, while four of the defendants have so far presented their defence testimonies. (Source: Eye Radio — September 23)

• Washington: the US State Department in a statement (September 22): President Trump is committed to ending "the world's worst humanitarian crisis" in Sudan; the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces have not seriously committed to an immediate humanitarian truce but have escalated military operations and drone strikes that kill civilians; "neither the army nor the Rapid Support Forces nor their leaders represent legitimate constitutional rule for Sudan — they rule by force of arms alone" and the conduct of the leaders of both parties "makes them unfit to rule"; Washington demands the two parties accept a humanitarian truce without preconditions and an inclusive political dialogue leading to a civilian government, and says it will seek to "raise the cost of continuing the conflict for all belligerents and the networks that fuel the conflict". (Source: US State Department — September 22)

• New York: Sudan requests the intervention of the UN Secretary-General to speed up the issuance of an entry visa for Sovereignty Council Chairman Abdel Fattah al-Burhan to attend the General Assembly meetings — Sudan's Ambassador to the United Nations, Al-Harith Idris Al-Harith, wrote to Guterres (September 21) warning that the continuation of the situation "will effectively prevent a head of a member state from participating in person in the work of the General Assembly", and UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said the Secretary-General is "extremely concerned" and is in contact with the US side; diplomatic sources told Reuters that Foreign Minister Mohiuddin Salem may deliver Sudan's speech instead of al-Burhan. (Source: Reuters — September 22/23)

• United Nations: the British Foreign Secretary in a speech before the General Assembly (September 22): "There is no military solution in Sudan"; he welcomed US efforts to tighten the sanctions regime and called for expanding the arms embargo to cover all of Sudan, referring to the Fact-Finding Mission report issued on September 3; and he demanded the permanent opening of the Adré border crossing and relief routes to El Obeid and El Fasher and an end to the "visa requirements, work permits and taxes" imposed by the two parties on relief workers. (Source: British Government — September 22)

• The humanitarian file: UN agencies report a new escalation in Darfur and Kordofan — clashes at the stock exchange market in El Daein (East Darfur) on September 19 led to a partial closure of the market, and armed clashes at the Abu Ja market in Gireida (South Darfur) killed 13 people and displaced more than 400; drone strikes on two UNICEF warehouses in Shikan (North Kordofan) on September 20 destroyed more than 330,000 educational materials prepared for distribution with the start of the school year; and a series of drone strikes in El Obeid between September 20 and 21; bread was cut off in Tawila (North Darfur) for four consecutive days, and the World Food Programme is monitoring a 13% rise in the cost of the local food basket compared with the previous month. (Source: UN agencies via IM News — September 23)

• Khartoum (SUNA, September 21): the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, Denise Brown, calls for a shift from "relief" to "investment" — Sudan's future "must not remain hostage to short-term humanitarian assistance" and the private sector is "the main driver of stability and sustainable development"; she said funding for the humanitarian response reached $1.9 billion in 2025 and $1.2 billion so far in 2026, and that the World Food Programme's purchases of local agricultural commodities have fallen to less than 50% of about 400,000 tons before the outbreak of the war. (Source: Sudan News Agency (SUNA) — September 21)

— Editorial Team