After three weeks of heavy fighting in Sudan, discussions between representatives of the two belligerents will take place this Saturday, May 6, in Saudi Arabia. This meeting, long desired by the international community, was confirmed by Riyadh and Washington, opening up the possibility of a truce never respected until then.
The United States and Saudi Arabia welcome the "start of pre-negotiation talks" in Jeddah between representatives of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane's army and those of General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo's Rapid Support Forces (RSF). "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.
On Friday, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane took a step towards appeasement, announcing the dispatch, in the evening, of negotiators to Saudi Arabia. These emissaries will meet in Jeddah to "discuss the details of the truce", renewed several times, but never respected, explained the army, without the other camp, that of the FSR, commenting immediately.
On the twenty-first day of the conflict, having already left 700 dead, 5,000 injured, 335,000 displaced and 115,000 refugees, airstrikes and explosions continued on Friday to shake the various districts of Khartoum, the capital, as well as Darfur to the west.
For several days, Volker Perthes, the UN envoy to Sudan, 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 thirty years of military-Islamist 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.
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 a "protracted" conflict in the country of 45 million people because "both sides believe they can win militarily and have little reason to come to the negotiating table." to discuss their political future.
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.
In the coastal city of Port Sudan, spared by the violence, the UN and a growing number of NGOs are trying to negotiate the delivery of cargo to Khartoum and Darfur where hospitals and humanitarian stocks have been looted and bombed.
