Saudi to host Sudan peace talks in coming weeks
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia will host fresh peace talks within the next three weeks on the war in Sudan, the United States said, calling Tuesday for both sides to “negotiate in good faith toward a ceasefire.”
The discussions, which will be held in Saudi Arabia’s port city of Jeddah, were announced on Monday at a France-backed international conference in Paris that raised more than two million euros for Sudan.
For over a year, the northeast African country has been ravaged by conflict between the Sudanese army and paramilitary forces, causing what the United Nations has called “one of the worst humanitarian disasters in recent memory.”
“Given the urgency of peace, we welcome the decision of Saudi Arabia to restart Jeddah talks within the next three weeks,” Tom Perriello, US special envoy for Sudan, wrote on X on Monday.
The US State Department called Tuesday for the army and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to “negotiate in good faith toward a ceasefire.”
Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, the African Union and the IGAD East African trade bloc will partner in facilitating the talks, a spokesman for the State Department said. The United States and Saudi Arabia have already supported several rounds of negotiations in Jeddah without success.
Fighting broke out on April 15 last year between Sudan’s regular army, headed by the country’s de facto leader Abdel Fatah Al-burhan, and the RSF paramilitaries led by his former deputy and ally Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.
Since then, tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than 8.5 million have been forced to flee their homes.
On the other hand, clashes between the Sudanese army and its rival paramilitary have killed at least 25 civilians in the North Darfur town of El-fasher, a pro-democracy lawyers commitee said on Tuesday.
The city and its surrounding villages have suffered several days of “arbitrary shelling and air strikes,” according to the Emergency Lawyers, which have been documenting atrocities commited against civilians since fighting began a year ago between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
As the war entered its second year, the United Nations and United States have warned the breakdown of the fragile peace in El-fasher -- the last Darfur state capital not under RSF control -- will be catastrophic for hundreds of thousands already suffering a humanitarian disaster.