(MENAFN- The Peninsula)
AFP
Geneva: US-sponsored talks on securing a ceasefire in the devastating conflict in Sudan kicked off in Switzerland on Wednesday, despite the Sudanese government staying away.
A woman protecting her face with a cardboard bearing the Sudanese flag as she holds a banner next to the monumental wood sculpture "Broken Chair" (L) during a demonstration on the opening day of Sudan ceasefire talks, in Geneva, on August 14, 2024. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)
War has raged since April 2023 between the Sudanese army under the country's de facto ruler Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.
The talks are being convened by Tom Perriello, the US special envoy for Sudan, who said after the opening session that it was "high time for the guns to be silenced".
The talks, which could last up to 10 days, are being held behind closed doors in an undisclosed location in Switzerland.
While the RSF delegation is taking part, the Sudanese armed forces (SAF) are unhappy with the format arranged by Washington.
A woman with one of her painted nail adorned with a Sudanese flag holds a placard during a demonstration on the opening day of Sudan ceasefire talks, in Geneva, on August 14, 2024. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)
"We have stressed that they have a responsibility to be there, and we'll continue to make that clear," State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said of the Sudanese army.
Perriello earlier warned the army that "the world is watching" as it stays away.
Humanitarian access
The talks are co-hosted by Saudi Arabia and Switzerland, with the African Union, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and the United Nations acting as a steering group.
Sudanese Media Minister Graham Abdelkader said ahead of the talks that the government was rejecting "any new observers or participants" -- after Washington "insisted on the participation of the United Arab Emirates as an observer".
Members of Sudan's armed forces take part in a military parade held on Army Day in Port Sudan on August 14, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
The Sudanese army has repeatedly accused the UAE of backing the RSF -- allegations the UAE denies.
Without the SAF, other attendees will press on with the talks' agenda.
"Our focus is to move forward to achieve a cessation of hostilities, enhance humanitarian access and establish enforcement mechanisms that deliver concrete results," Perriello said.
Sudan's Red Sea State Governor Mustafa Mohamed Nour (C) attends a military parade held on the occasion of Army Day outside the Armed Forces Officers' Club in Port Sudan on August 14, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed the Sudan talks in a call Wednesday with his Egyptian counterpart and called for both sides to participate, Patel said.
The brutal conflict has triggered one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
Sudanese already displaced by conflict, walk near tents at a makeshift campsite they were evacuated to following deadly floods in the eastern city of Kassala on August 12, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
The fighting has forced one in five people to flee their homes, while tens of thousands have died.
More than 25 million across the country -- more than half its population -- face acute hunger.
Members of Sudan's armed forces take part in a military parade held on the occasion of Army Day in Port Sudan on August 14, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
Vittorio Oppizzi, Sudan programme manager for the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF), said both parties had "manipulated" humanitarian access, in violation of international law.
He told reporters MSF was well used to operating in conflict zones, and safe and unhindered access "should not be dependent on a cessation to hostility or a solution to the conflict".
Pressure on Burhan
Alan Boswell, the Horn of Africa project director at the International Crisis Group, said Burhan was facing "serious internal divisions", with some in his camp in favour of talks and others "fiercely opposed".
Notably, with the United States in charge, and Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt present, "that puts all the main outside actors with leverage over the warring parties in one room together", he told AFP.
A handout image posted on the Sudanese Armed Forces's facebook page on August 31, 2023, shows army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan (C) gesturing as he walks among other army members during a tour of a neighbourhood in Port Sudan, in the Red Sea state. (Photo by Sudanese Army / AFP)
The government no-show could leave Burhan under mounting external pressure if he is seen as "the main obstacle to ending the war", said Boswell.
Previous talks in the Saudi city of Jeddah came to nothing.
Cameron Hudson, from the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Africa programme, told AFP that Washington had "tried to create the illusion of momentum" to force the army's hand, "but it was a bluff and the SAF saw through it."
"The only way to get them to talk is through brute force: either the risk of losing the war on the battlefield, the risk of real diplomatic isolation and the risk of real economic devastation for them. None of that pressure currently exists."
'Peace, now'
There has been no let-up in the fighting.
The Emergency Lawyers -- a group of volunteer lawyers who have documented human rights violations during the war -- reported "increased indiscriminate artillery shelling by the RSF on civilian areas" this week, particularly in El-Fasher and Omdurman, where they reported strikes on a school, a bus carrying civilian passengers and a hospital.
Women take part to a demonstration on the opening day of Sudan ceasefire talks, in Geneva, on August 14, 2024. US-sponsored talks on agreeing a ceasefire in the devastating conflict in Sudan kicked off in Switzerland, despite the Sudanese government staying away. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)
Around a hundred demonstrators gathered outside the UN headquarters in Geneva, chanting: "Action for Sudan" and holding a banner reading "Stop the catastrophic war".
"We are not naive but this is critical now and they have to sit down and negotiate peace. We want peace now, ceasefire now," co-organiser Lina Rasheed told AFP.
Amani Maghoub, who came especially from London, said: "The situation is so bad, we want the war to stop right now," adding: "We want justice for the Sudanese."
An image taken on August 12, 2024, shows the damage caused by floods in Meroe, approximately 200 kilometres north-east of Sudan's capital Khartoum. (Photo by AFP)
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