The UN Special Representative in Sudan Volker Perthes met with Sudanese General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan on Wednesday and encouraged him to de-escalate the situation in the country, calling for access to and the release of detainees, his mission said in a statement on Thursday.

Perthes "offered his good offices to facilitate a political settlement towards the restoration of the transitional partnership," the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS) said.

Al-Burhan on Thursday assigned Ali Al-Sadiq the position of Undersecretary of the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

(With input from Reuters)