Today's Edition
WAD MADANI (ALETIHAD) - The Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) - fighting with each other for six months - said on Wednesday that they had accepted an invitation to resume Saudi and US-led-brokered negotiations.Since April, the fighting between forces loyal to Army Chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the Rapid Support Forces, has displaced over 5.6 million.
Previous mediation attempts have only yielded brief truces. In a statement, the army said that it had accepted an invitation from Saudi Arabia and the United States to travel to the Saudi city of Jeddah "out of a belief by the armed forces that negotiations are one of the means that may end the conflict".
The RSF later said that their delegation arrived in Jeddah, in hopes of "reaching a solution that will stop the fighting and end the suffering of our people". US officials said that the talks would resume on Thursday and aim for a ceasefire but that discussing a lasting political solution was premature.
"The new round will focus on ensuring unhindered humanitarian access and achieving ceasefires and other confidence-building measures," a State Department official said on the condition of anonymity. Another official told reporters that the United States hoped for a "constructive spirit" in the talks, saying that "there is no acceptable military solution to this conflict".
Also participating in the Jeddah talks will be representatives of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, the East African regional bloc led by Kenya. The fighting in Sudan has decimated already fragile infrastructure, shuttered 80% of the country's hospitals, and plunged millions into acute hunger. According to the United Nations, Sudan - where many had fled their homes in previous conflicts - is now the largest internal displacement crisis in the world, with over 7.1 million people displaced within the country.
The UN humanitarian Chief Martin Griffiths said that six months into the conflict, "basic services are crumbling", disease outbreaks are "stalking the country", and "aid workers continue to be stymied in reaching people in need". A projection by the United States' Johns Hopkins University indicated that "at least 10,000 children under five years of age may die by the end of 2023".
