Sudan envoys begin talks amid pressure to end conflict

The US and Saudi Arabia said Sudan’s warring factions began negotiations Saturday to solidify a shaky cease-fire after three weeks of violent fighting that has killed hundreds and brought the African nation to the verge of collapse.

According to a joint Saudi-American statement, the first conversations between the Sudanese military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, since the combat began on April 15 were held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on the Red Sea.

The meetings are part of a kingdom-U.S. diplomatic attempt to end the war that has turned Khartoum and other cities into battlefields and displaced hundreds of people.

Saudi Arabia and the U.S. urged both parties to “actively engage in the talks towards a cease-fire and end to the conflict, which will spare the Sudanese people’s suffering.”

After Riyadh and other international powers pressured the warring sides in Sudan to negotiate, the statement did not provide a timeframe for the discussions.

Saudi Arabia has mediated between Sudan’s ruling generals and a pro-democracy movement since a 2021 coup halted democracy. After Sudan’s top two generals—military and paramilitary—turned on one other in April and the new fighting began, Jeddah became a hub for people evacuated by water from Port Sudan.
The military and RSF claimed the meetings would discuss humanitarian corridors in Khartoum and Omdurman, the battlegrounds.

One military official said they will also consider protecting civilian infrastructure, particularly overburdened hospitals that lack workers and supplies.

An RSF officer said they will explore a way to monitor the cease-fire, one of several that failed.

Sudan’s pro-democracy movement termed the Jeddah negotiations “a first step” to stop the country’s collapse and urged military and RSF officials to make a “bold decision” to end the fight.

After a 2021 military coup led by army chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, who also chairs the sovereign council, and his deputy Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, the movement, a coalition of political parties and civil society groups, negotiated with the military for months to restore the country’s democratic transition.

Dagalo first tweeted about the Jeddah negotiations on Saturday, welcoming the initiative to secure a strong cease-fire and open humanitarian routes. “We hope the discussions will succeed,” he said.

As of Monday, the Sudanese Health Ministry reported 550 civilian deaths and over 4,900 injuries. The Sudanese Doctors’ Syndicate, which counts exclusively civilian casualties, reported Friday that 473 civilians had been killed and over 2,450 wounded in the violence.

The fighting ended months of Burhan-Dagalo hostilities. It threw Sudan into disarray and forced foreign countries to evacuate embassies and thousands of foreign nationals. As urban warfare continued, hundreds of thousands of Sudanese fled to neighboring nations.

The UN refugee agency anticipated that 860,000 Sudanese will escape to neighboring nations, requiring $445 million in help.

Local police claimed a bus carrying Sudanese fleeing the conflict toppled in Egypt’s southern province of Beni Suef on Saturday, injuring 36 Sudanese, including women and children, and two Egyptians.

Since conflict began, tens of thousands of Sudanese have entered Egypt.