2023-05-07 10:09:34
The fighting in Sudan, which has been going on for weeks, did not abate over the weekend, despite international efforts to reach a ceasefire. Eyewitnesses from the capital Khartoum reported to AFP on Sunday air raids and firefights in several districts. No news of the ceasefire negotiations between representatives of the Sudanese army and the RSF militia in Saudi Arabia, which began at the weekend.
Representatives of the USA and Saudi Arabia assured that the two conflicting parties are working on a ceasefire. The army and militia made no statements regarding the talks. “The army delegation will only speak regarding the ceasefire and how it is properly implemented to enable humanitarian aid,” said army spokesman Nabil Abdallah. RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo wrote on Twitter that he supported the talks.
Riyadh and Washington welcomed the “beginning of preliminary talks” and urged both parties to “get actively involved”. However, they did not provide any information regarding the official start or the content of the talks.
Saudi Arabia confirmed on Saturday that negotiators from the Sudanese parties to the conflict had arrived in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for direct talks. According to a Saudi Arabian diplomat, representatives of Great Britain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the USA are also involved in the talks in Jeddah.
In Sudan, army units under the command of military ruler Abdel Fattah al-Burhan have been fighting the RSF militia under commander Daglo 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 parties to the conflict have already agreed on several ceasefires, which have been broken once more and once more.
Both the army and the RSF militia are trying to portray themselves as upholders of democratic values, despite both sides being involved in the recent coup in 2021. Burhan and his former deputy Daglo jointly deposed long-time ruler Omar al-Bashir in 2019 following mass popular protests.
An interim government made up of six civilians and five military officers was then supposed to lead the country towards democracy – until the generals staged a coup in 2021. The current conflict was sparked by a dispute over how to integrate the militia into the regular forces.
Andreas Krieg of King’s College London has described the fighting in Khartoum as a “war of attrition” in which both sides have similar capabilities and capacities. The UN child protection organization UNICEF warned of the deadly consequences of the ongoing fighting for children. Already 190 children were killed in the first eleven days of the conflict and 1,700 others were injured, said UNICEF spokesman James Elder, citing a partner organization.
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 might 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.
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