Discussions between representatives of the two belligerents in Sudan will take place on Saturday in Saudi Arabia, confirmed in a joint press release Ryad and Washington, opening the possibility of a truce to a conflict which has already left several hundred dead.
The United States and Saudi Arabia welcome the “start of pre-negotiation discussions” in Jeddah between representatives of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane’s army and those of General Mohamed Hamdane’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) Daglo.
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States urge both parties to consider the interests of the Sudanese nation and its people, and to actively engage in discussions towards a ceasefire and an end to the conflict,” say Riyadh and Washington.
While airstrikes and explosions continued to shake various districts of Khartoum all day Friday, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane’s army had already announced in the evening that it had dispatched negotiators to Saudi Arabia, after 21 days of fighting that left 700 dead, 5,000 injured, 335,000 displaced and 115,000 refugees.
These emissaries will meet in Jeddah to “discuss the details of the truce” renewed several times but never respected, she explained, without the other camp, that of the FSR, commenting immediately.
For several days, the UN envoy to Sudan, Volker Perthes, explains that the two belligerents had said they were “ready to begin technical discussions” relating only to the modalities of a ceasefire, citing the Saudi Arabia as a possible meeting place.
A return to political negotiations on the future of a country that emerged in 2019 from 30 years of military-Islamic dictatorship to fall back under the thumb of the military with the putsch of the two generals in 2021 will only be possible after a real truce, he had hammered.
Beyond the direct victims, this new war is increasing hunger, a scourge that already affected one in three Sudanese. According to the UN, between 2 and 2.5 million more people could suffer from acute malnutrition within six months if the conflict continues.
Faced with the “catastrophe” denounced by the humanitarians, the international community is struggling to act in organized ranks. The UN Human Rights Council will hold a special session on May 11, almost a month after the outbreak of hostilities.
Sunday, it is the ministers of the countries of the Arab League who must examine “the Sudanese file” on which they are deeply divided, after several discussions between leaders of the African Union (AU) and Igad, the regional organization of East Africa.
US-Saudi mediation does not always seem to converge with other regional efforts to silence the guns.
US intelligence expects ‘prolonged’ conflict in country of 45 million because ‘both sides believe they can win militarily and have little reason to come to the negotiating table’ to discuss their political future.
The UN warns that 860,000 people, Sudanese but also many South Sudanese returning to their country, could cross the borders in the coming months and is calling for 402 million euros to help the country, one of the poorest in the world.
“More than 56,000 people” have arrived in Egypt, according to the UN, “30,000 in Chad”, “more than 12,000” in Ethiopia and 10,000 in the Central African Republic.
Afdal Abdel Rahim is waiting to cross into Egypt. “When the war started, with bombings and airstrikes”, she told AFP, “we left our homes and fled to Wadi Halfa”, the last town before Egypt where thousands of Sudanese fleeing the war are crowding.
In Darfur, in the western border of Chad, civilians have been armed to participate in clashes mixing soldiers, paramilitaries and tribal or rebel fighters, according to the UN.
The NGO Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), whose premises were looted, counts “at least 191 dead, dozens of homes burned and thousands displaced” in this region ravaged in the 2000s by a conflict that caused around 300,000 dead and 2.5 million displaced according to the UN.
Witnesses also reported Thursday fighting in El-Obeid, 300 km south of the capital.
In the coastal city of Port-Sudan, spared by the violence, the UN and more and more NGOs are trying to negotiate the delivery of these cargoes to Khartoum and Darfur where hospitals and humanitarian stocks have been looted and bombarded.
06/05/2023 04:35:07 – Khartoum (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
