UN envoy sees Sudan combatants more open to talks

A U.N. official told Reuters on Saturday that Sudanese warring parties are more open to dialogue and have realized that the conflict that started two weeks ago cannot continue.

Volker Perthes, U.N. special representative in Sudan, said the sides had nominated delegates for negotiations in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, or Juba, South Sudan, but it was unclear if they could “actually sit together”.

He stated talks were unscheduled.

Negotiations between the two presidents have appeared unlikely. General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan claimed in an interview on Friday that he would never meet with the RSF’s “rebel” leader, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who said he would only discuss once the army ended hostilities.

Since April 15, a long-simmering power struggle between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has killed hundreds.

Perthes told the Security Council two days earlier that both sides believed they could win the battle, but he also indicated attitudes were changing.

“They both think they will win, but they are both sort of more open to negotiations, the word ‘negotiations’ or ‘talks’ was not there in their discourse in the first week or so,” he said.

“Ok we accept… some form of talks,” Perthes stated, even though the factions had said “surrender or die”.

“They have both accepted that this war cannot continue,” he said.

Residents say the RSF is present in Khartoum despite daily air strikes by the army, which claims control of vital installations.

Looting and fighting have wrecked businesses and houses and ruined electricity, water, and telecommunications. Tens of thousands of Sudanese have fled conflict to neighboring towns or countries.

Perthes said the urgent job was to build a ceasefire monitoring mechanism, which had been agreed to multiple times but failed to stop the fighting.

East African states proposed political negotiations in Juba and “military-technical” discussions in Jeddah.

Perthes stated that foreign and local mediators rushed to reduce tensions in early April, but they thought a “temporary de-escalation” had been achieved the night before combat began.