the belligerents meet in Saudi Arabia on Saturday

The United States and Saudi Arabia welcome the “start of pre-negotiation discussions” in Jeddah between representatives of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane’s army and those of General Mohamed Hamdane’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) Daglo.

While airstrikes and explosions continued to shake various districts of Khartoum throughout the day on Friday, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane’s army had already announced in the evening that it had dispatched negotiators to Saudi Arabia, after 21 days of fighting that left 700 dead, 5,000 injured, 335,000 displaced and 115,000 refugees.

A truce renewed several times, but never respected

These emissaries will meet in Jeddah to “discuss the details of the truce” renewed several times but never respected, she explained, without the other camp, that of the FSR, commenting immediately.

For several days, the UN envoy to Sudan, Volker Perthes, explains that the two belligerents had said they were “ready to begin technical discussions” relating only to the modalities of a ceasefire, citing the Saudi Arabia as a possible meeting place.

A return to political negotiations on the future of a country that emerged in 2019 from thirty years of military-Islamist dictatorship to fall back under the thumb of the military with the putsch of the two generals in 2021 will only be possible after a real truce, he had hammered.

Millions of people suffering from malnutrition

Beyond the direct victims, this new war is increasing hunger, a scourge that already affected one in three Sudanese. According to the UN, between 2 and 2.5 million additional people could suffer from acute malnutrition within six months if the conflict continues.

Sudan: Khartoum hospitals out of order / AFP

Faced with the disaster denounced by the humanitarians, the international community is struggling to act in organized ranks. The UN Human Rights Council will hold a special session on May 11, almost a month after the outbreak of hostilities.

Sunday, it is the ministers of the countries of the Arab League who must examine “the Sudanese file” on which they are deeply divided, after several discussions between leaders of the African Union (AU) and the regional organization of South Africa. ballast. US-Saudi mediation does not always seem to converge with other regional efforts to silence the guns.

Both sides still think they can win

For US intelligence, expect a “protracted” conflict in the country of 45 million people because “both sides believe they can win militarily and have little reason to come to the negotiating table” to discuss their political future.

The UN warns that 860,000 people, Sudanese but also many South Sudanese returning to their country, could cross borders in the coming months and calls for 402 million euros to help the country, one of the poorest in the world .

In Darfur, in the western border of Chad, civilians have been armed to participate in clashes mixing soldiers, paramilitaries and tribal or rebel fighters, according to the UN. The NGO Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), whose premises were looted, counted “at least 191 dead, dozens of homes burned and thousands displaced” in this region ravaged in the 2000s by a conflict that caused approximately 300,000 dead and 2.5 million displaced according to the UN.

Source