In Sudan’s long-troubled western region, almost 200 people have been killed in West Darfur state over the past two weeks, the United Nations said.
It has warned of a widening humanitarian crisis. Fighting has already displaced 335,000 people and created in excess of 120,000 refugees who have fled north into Egypt, west to Chad, and to South Sudan as well as elsewhere, according to the UN
Egypt’s foreign ministry warned of “the great humanitarian tragedy” of the conflict, “directly affecting Sudan’s neighbouring countries”, in a statement on Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry’s visit Monday to Chad and then South Sudan.
The UN top humanitarian official, Martin Griffiths, has travelled to the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah, and a UN official said Griffiths had “asked to join the negotiations” between the warring sides, but his request had not been approved so far.
MEDIATION EFFORTS
Saudi Arabia is pushing for “a timetable for expanded negotiations to reach a permanent cessation of hostilities”, its foreign ministry said.
The Jeddah talks, which are set to continue “in the following days”, aim to reach “an effective short-term halt” to the fighting, facilitating aid delivery and restoring basic services, it added.
US ambassador John Godfrey, while not commenting directly on the Jeddah talks, said in a statement: “Our immediate priority is to reach a durable ceasefire” and enable humanitarian assistance.
Multiple truce deals have been declared and quickly violated during the current fighting, in a country with a history of instability.
Mediation efforts have multiplied.
Heavyweights in the pan-Arab bloc are divided on Sudan, with Egypt supporting Burhan and the United Arab Emirates seen to be backing the RSF, according to experts.
The absence of Cairo and Abu Dhabi from the Jeddah talks, according to Sudanese analyst Khair, further dampens hopes for an agreement.
Saudi and US mediators “have played this very close to their chest”, instead of creating a “unified critical mass around these talks”, she told AFP.
The African Union – which holds little leverage after suspending Sudan following a coup in 2021 – and East African regional bloc IGAD are pushing for discussions mediated by South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir.
Dafaallah al-Haj, the envoy of Sudanese army chief Burhan, met with Kiir in South Sudan’s capital Juba on Monday. Haj later told reporters that, “Our response to the initiative of Saudi Arabia and the United States doesn’t exclude the role of IGAD” and Kiir.
Haj added that if the RSF “rebels put down their arms, we will pardon them.”
Since together orchestrating a coup in October 2021 that upended a fragile transition to civilian rule, Burhan and Daglo fell out in a power struggle, most recently over integration of the RSF into the regular army.
Source: CNA
