2023-05-31 10:00:02
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) — Sudan’s army has suspended talks with a paramilitary force with which it has fought for weeks in the northeast African country, a military spokesman said Wednesday.
The news was a blow to the United States and Saudi Arabia, which have been mediating between the two sides, whose conflict has thrown Sudan into chaos.
The decision was a protest once morest “repeated violations” of the humanitarian ceasefire by the Rapid Support Forces, such as their continued occupation of hospitals and other civilian infrastructure in the capital Khartoum, Brigadier Nabil Abdalla told The Associated Press. .
The army wants to make sure the terms of the truce are “fully implemented” before negotiating any further issues, the spokesperson added, without elaborating.
There was no immediate comment from Saudi Arabia or the United States, which have mediated talks between the two sides. So far, seven ceasefire periods have been declared, all of which have been violated to a greater or lesser extent.
Responding to the army’s decision, the FAR said it “unconditionally supports the Saudi and US initiative.”
Two other military commanders said the military had written to Saudi and American mediators detailing what they described as FAR violations. They noted that the military delegation was still at the talks venue in the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah.
One of the officers said the decision was due to efforts by mediators to move to the next phase of negotiations without “fully applying the terms” of the humanitarian ceasefire. That phase includes a long-term ceasefire and entering into negotiations to resolve disputes between the two sides, he added.
The two officers spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to report to the media.
The two sides had decided two days before to extend the flimsy ceasefire for five more days, given the impatience of Washington and Riyadh over the persistent violations of the truce.
In a joint statement on Sunday, the United States and Saudi Arabia blamed the two sides for a series of specific breaches of the week-long truce, instead of renewing their generic demand that the agreements be respected.
The statement noted that the army had continued airstrikes, while the RSF continued to occupy private homes and confiscate property. They also reported the theft of fuel, money, aid material and vehicles from a humanitarian convoy, they said, registered both in areas controlled by the army and by the paramilitary group.
Sudan was plunged into chaos following fighting broke out in mid-April between the army, led by General Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and the FAR, commanded by General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo.
At least 866 civilians have been killed in the fighting and thousands more have been injured, according to the Sudan Doctors Union, which counts civilian casualties. The true number might be much higher, the medical group said.
The conflict has turned the capital Khartoum into battlefields and forced some 1.4 million people to flee their homes to safer areas within Sudan or neighboring countries.
Foreign governments rushed at the start of the fighting to evacuate their diplomats and citizens, while thousands of foreign residents tried to leave the African nation.
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