PRETORIA, April 15. /TASS/. The African Union (AU) calls on all parties involved in the conflict in Sudan to cease fire and find a political solution to the current situation, the AU Commission’s Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat said in a statement uploaded to the AU portal on Saturday.

"The African Union has been following closely and with great concern the developments in the Republic of Sudan and urging, directly and indirectly, the political and military parties to find a fair political solution to the crisis that arose after the October 25, 2021 coup and its disastrous consequences," it said. "Today, when things have drifted into the path of armed violence as a means to overcome political differences, the Chairperson of the Commission appeals to the parties, the armed forces and the Rapid Support Forces in particular, to immediately stop the destruction of the country, the terrorization of its population, and the bloodshed during the last ten days of Ramadan".

Faki Mahamat also asked the international community to immediately redouble efforts to persuade all parties to the current standoff in Sudan to cease fire and come to the negotiating table.

The situation in Sudan has escalated due to disagreement between army commander Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who also heads the Sovereign Council (the country's governing body), and his deputy in the council, Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemidti), the head of the rapid support force. On the morning of April 15, clashes broke out between the two forces near a military base in the city of Merowe and in the Sudanese capital Khartoum. According to Al-Jazeera TV, at least three civilians were killed in the clashes and dozens of others were wounded.