US, Saudi urge warring Sudan parties to resume truce talks

Focus

04 Jun 2023 06:26pm

A man herds goats in a southern Khartoum neighbourhood, on June 3, 2023, as fighting persists between two rival generals. Shelling rocked greater Khartoum as fighting between Sudan's warring generals intensified, despite US sanctions imposed after the collapse of a US- and Saudi-brokered truce. Entire districts of Khartoum no longer have running water, electricity is only available for a few hours a week, and three quarters of hospitals in combat zones are not functioning. (Photo by AFP)

RIYADH, Saudi - The United States and Saudi Arabia on Sunday continued to push for renewed truce talks between Sudan's warring generals as fighting rages into its eighth week.

Representatives of Sudan's regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces remained in the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah despite the earlier collapse of ceasefire talks, the Saudi foreign ministry said.

A five-day extension of a US- and Saudi-brokered but oft-ignored truce formally expired Saturday evening, with no signs of the conflict abating in Sudan and fears that the rival sides were poised for an escalation.

The Saudi and US mediators nonetheless called for "the parties to agree to and effectively implement a new ceasefire, with the aim of building to a permanent cessation of hostilities", Riyadh said.

The last truce was agreed to allow desperately needed humanitarian aid and safe passages into areas of Sudan ravaged by the fighting, but like all that preceded it was routinely violated by both sides.

The Sudanese army on Wednesday withdrew from the talks in Jeddah.

A day later, the US-Saudi mediators declared them officially suspended, with Washington saying it was ready to resume the talks once the parties were "serious" about the ceasefire.

Sunday's statement comes two days before US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due to arrive in Saudi Arabia, with discussions on Sudan likely to be on the agenda.

The United States on Thursday slapped sanctions on the warring parties, holding them both responsible for provoking "appalling" bloodshed.

More than 1,800 people have been killed in over seven weeks of fighting, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.

The UN says 1.2 million people have been displaced within Sudan and more than 425,000 have fled abroad.

Some 25 million people - more than half Sudan's population - are now in need of aid and protection in what was already one of the world's poorest countries even before the conflict, according to the UN. - AFP