Representatives of the Sudanese army have returned to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to resume negotiations with the paramilitaries, a government source said on Saturday, as the war between two rival generals enters its fourth month.
Since April 15, the fighting between the army, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, and the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (FSR) of General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo, have left at least 3,000 dead, according to the NGO Acled, specializing in information gathering in conflict zones.
Several ceasefires have been agreed in recent months under the aegis of the United States and Saudi Arabia, but Saudi and American mediators adjourned negotiations in June after the ceasefires were systematically broken. violated.
“A delegation of the armed forces has returned to Jeddah to resume negotiations with the rebels of the Rapid Support Forces,” a government source told AFP on condition of anonymity, not being authorized to speak to the media.
The FRS did not immediately comment on the resumption of negotiations.
This delegation to Saudi Arabia marks the return of the army to the diplomatic front, after having boycotted peace talks in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, organized by the regional bloc of East Africa (Igad) on Monday. The Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had accused Kenya, which chairs Igad, of supporting the FSR.
Before the Jeddah talks were suspended, US mediators grew increasingly frustrated with the two sides’ reluctance to work towards a lasting truce.
Not a day off
Experts believe that the two rival generals opted for a war of attrition, hoping to achieve a military victory, rather than negotiations.
Since the beginning of the conflict, the inhabitants of Khartoum have not gone a single day without their homes shaking under airstrikes, artillery fire and shootings.
According to a latest UN report, 1.7 million people have fled the capital. Millions more have been stuck at home for fear of being caught in the crossfire of brutal urban warfare.
Witnesses in the northwest of the city reported Saturday “clashes with all kinds of weapons”, after heavy fighting on Friday.
Others said RSF drones targeted the largest military hospital in Khartoum, while the majority of health facilities in combat zones are out of service.
Most of the clashes are taking place in the capital and in Darfur (west), where a quarter of the 48 million Sudanese live and where the fighting has taken on an “ethnic dimension”, according to the UN.
On Thursday, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced in a report to the UN Security Council the opening of a war crimes investigation in Sudan, after the discovery of a mass grave containing 87 bodies. in Darfur.
New fronts have also sporadically opened up, notably in the south of the country, where witnesses said a rebel group took control of a military base in South Kordofan state on Friday.
Aid to neighboring countries
According to the UN, the conflict has already left more than 2.4 million internally displaced and another 740,000 people have fled to countries neighboring Sudan, many of whom are themselves facing economic crises or to political instability.
In South Sudan, “the closure of the northern border has left many markets empty” and risks worsening an already fragile humanitarian situation, Pierre Dorbes of the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Friday.
On the other side of Sudan’s border with the Central African Republic, “the circulation of small arms” is on the rise, Central African President Faustin Archange Touadéra warned on Thursday during a summit in Egypt bringing together the seven neighboring countries of the country at war.
At the meeting, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi urged the international community, which had pledged $1.5 billion at a summit in June, to “keep its promises” to “help” them.