Talks on a ceasefire in Sudan began in Switzerland on Wednesday under the leadership of the United States, despite the absence of the Sudanese army at the negotiating table.
“Discussions have started,” a spokesman for the US embassy in Geneva told AFP, indicating that there was “no change” regarding the non-participation of the Sudanese army.
“It is high time to silence the guns!” said US special envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello on the social network X.
The war in Sudan has been going on since April 2023 between the army, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of his former deputy, General Mohammed Hamdane Daglo, a conflict that has plunged the country to the brink of famine.
Previous rounds of negotiations in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, failed, and in late July Washington invited the military and paramilitaries to participate in ceasefire talks in Switzerland.
The paramilitaries quickly accepted the invitation, but Sudan, de facto led by the army commander, expressed its disagreement, suggesting a few days ago that the army would not come to Switzerland.
Yet, “we can do more together if the FAS [forces armées soudanaises, NDLR] “send a delegation,” Mr. Perriello said on X on Tuesday evening.
“Illusion”
Washington has called for the talks, co-sponsored by Saudi Arabia and Switzerland, to include the African Union, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and the UN as observers.
The Sudanese government disputes the presence of the United Arab Emirates and the establishment of a platform for discussions elsewhere than in Jeddah. But the United States believes on the contrary that the United Arab Emirates could, with Egypt, be “guarantors” of a possible agreement and considers the discussions in Switzerland as an “extension” of Jeddah.
Initial discussions between the two warring parties in Sudan and an envoy from the United Nations (UN), Algerian diplomat Ramtane Lamamra, took place from July 11 to 19 in Geneva, focusing on humanitarian aid and the protection of civilians.
The goal of the U.S.-led talks is “to achieve a nationwide cessation of violence, to allow humanitarian access to all those in need, and to establish a robust monitoring and verification mechanism to ensure that any agreement is implemented,” according to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, but the new negotiations will not address “broader political issues.”
“The United States tried to create the illusion of a moment of momentum to force the FAS to cooperate […]”But it was a bluff and the Sudanese armed forces saw through it because they know the international community is divided,” says Cameron Hudson of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
“The only way to get them to talk is through brute force: either the risk of losing the war on the battlefield, or the risk of real diplomatic isolation and the risk of real economic devastation,” but “neither of these pressures exists at the moment,” he told AFP.
“Serious internal divisions”
According to Alan Boswell, Horn of Africa project director at the International Crisis Group, General Burhan’s camp is “facing serious internal divisions” over the talks in Switzerland.
But he believes that General Burhan “will come under increasing external pressure if he is seen as the main obstacle to ending the war.”
The meeting in Switzerland, at a location kept secret for security reasons, is expected to last a maximum of ten days.
It comes as Sudan stands at a catastrophic “breaking point”, with a confluence of crises threatening to leave tens of thousands dead, the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) warned this week.
The war has killed tens of thousands of people and caused a major humanitarian crisis, according to the United Nations.
In early August, a UN-backed body said the war had plunged Zamzam camp, near the besieged town of al-Fashir, the capital of North Darfur, into famine. Since early May, heavy fighting has been taking place in al-Fashir, the only capital of Darfur’s five states not in the hands of the RSF, which is besieging it.
Emergency Lawyers, a Sudanese lawyers’ group that has been documenting atrocities since the start of the war, reported “an increase in indiscriminate artillery shelling by the RSF on civilian areas” this week, particularly in al-Fashir and Omdurman, where they reported strikes on a school, a bus carrying civilians and a hospital.