The US and Saudi Arabia welcomed the “start of preliminary talks” in Jeddah between representatives of military ruler Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the RSF militia commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. These should take the interests of Sudan and its people into account and “play an active part” in order to bring about a “ceasefire and an end to the conflict”.
The Sudanese army said the envoys would meet in Jeddah to “discuss the details of the ceasefire,” which has been extended several times but never complied with. According to a Saudi diplomat, representatives of Great Britain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the USA will also take part in the talks in Jeddah.
RSF boss Daglo welcomed the planned talks on Twitter and thanked the USA, Saudi Arabia and other international actors for their efforts. The general, whose RSF emerged from the Janjawid militia accused of war crimes in Darfur, reiterated “the need to form a transitional civilian government that (…) realizes the aspirations of our people.”
The parties to the conflict have already agreed on several ceasefires, which have been broken again and again. According to witnesses, warplanes again bombed various parts of Khartoum on Saturday morning. The telecommunications company MTN announced that all its services were interrupted.
Earlier, the Intergovernmental Authority for Development (IGAD), which includes eight East African countries, expressed concern about ceasefire violations in Sudan and called on both sides to hold talks. The Foreign Ministry in South Sudan’s capital Juba announced on Friday evening that President Salva Kiir had spoken to the warring generals in neighboring Sudan about “his concerns and those of the IGAD leaders”.
Kiir has been appointed by the alliance to lead mediation in the conflict – last week South Sudan announced a seven-day ceasefire.
The UN envoy for Sudan, Volker Perthes, said days ago that both warring parties were ready to hold talks on a ceasefire. He named Saudi Arabia as a possible venue for the talks.
In Sudan, army units under the command of military ruler Abdel Fattah al-Burhan have been fighting the RSF militia since mid-April. According to the non-governmental organization Acled, more than 700 people have been killed in the fighting, mostly in Khartoum and the Darfur region. Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced.
The UN child protection organization Unicef warned of the deadly consequences of the ongoing fighting for young people. In the first eleven days of the conflict, 190 children had already been killed and 1,700 others injured, said UNICEF spokesman James Elder, citing a partner organization.
The figures, collected since hostilities began on April 15, came from health facilities in Khartoum and Darfur, according to Elder. So they only include those children who could ever be placed in the centers in those areas, Elder said. “The reality is very likely much worse.”
The UN Human Rights Council scheduled a special session on the situation in Sudan for May 11 at the request of Great Britain, Norway, the United States and Germany.
According to the UN on Friday, an additional two to two and a half million people in Sudan could no longer secure their food security in the next three to six months if the conflict continued. This means that around 19 million people across the country would be at acute risk of starvation and malnutrition.
