(Geneva) Talks between the two warring parties in Sudan and a UN envoy are continuing this week in Geneva, focusing in particular on humanitarian aid and the protection of civilians, the UN announced on Tuesday.
Fighting has been raging in Sudan since April 15, 2023, between the army, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by General Mohammed Hamdane Daglo, former number two in the military power.
The delegations of the regular army and the FSR were invited to these talks in Geneva by the Algerian diplomat Ramtane Lamamra, personal envoy for Sudan of the Secretary General of the UN Antonio Guterres.
Last Thursday, one of the delegations did not show up for the first day of talks, the UN said, without identifying it. But this weekend, Mr. Lamamra, a former Algerian deputy prime minister and foreign minister, met with each delegation several times, a UN spokeswoman in Geneva, Alessandra Vellucci, said in a press briefing on Tuesday.
“Discussions are continuing this week,” focusing in particular “on the two key points: humanitarian aid and the protection of civilians,” she added. “Some promising signs” emerged from Monday’s talks in Geneva, said Shible Sahbani, representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Sudan.
“Let’s wait for the hours and days to come […] “If we do not get a ceasefire, we can at least get the protection of civilians and the opening of humanitarian corridors,” he said from Port Sudan. “The protection of civilians must also include respect for international human rights, including access to basic and health services,” he stressed.
Mr. Lamamra is meeting each delegation separately in separate rooms. The agenda does not include a meeting of the two delegations (composed of humanitarian, security and military experts) with each other. No end date has been announced for these discussions, which are being held under two UN Security Council resolutions on Sudan adopted earlier this year.
“Humanitarian catastrophe”
The conflict in Sudan has left tens of thousands dead and displaced more than 10 million people, according to the UN.
Some 25.6 million people, more than half of Sudan’s population, are currently facing “acute food insecurity,” a UN-backed report said in late June. Shible Sahbani, who visited the Sudan-Chad border last week, said many refugees told him they fled Sudan primarily because of hunger.
“It’s not insecurity, it’s not lack of access to basic services, it’s because they have nothing to eat,” particularly because of looting by fighters, he explained, describing the situation as an “ongoing humanitarian catastrophe.”
“If we do not act now, the rapidly deteriorating situation in Sudan could spiral out of control and allow disease, malnutrition and trauma to reign unchecked, with transgenerational impact on the Sudanese people,” Mr. Sahbani concluded.