Countries call for ‘unhindered’ access to respond to growing humanitarian crisis in war-torn African nation.
The international mediators engaged in talks to bring Sudan’s war to an end have welcomed decisions by the warring sides to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian relief to the country.
In a joint statement on Saturday, the sponsors of the talks in Switzerland lauded the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces’s commitment to cooperate with humanitarian deliveries to Sudan’s Darfur and Kordofan states.
The mediators – the United States, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, the African Union and the United Nations – also praised the Sudanese Armed Forces’s decision to open the Adre border crossing with Chad into North Darfur for three months.
“These constructive decisions by both parties will enable the entry of aid needed to stop the famine, address food insecurity and respond to immense humanitarian needs in Darfur and beyond,” they said in a joint statement.
They also called on the warring sides to “immediately communicate and coordinate with humanitarian partners to efficiently operationalize these corridors with full and unhindered access”.
The talks kicked off in the Swiss city of Geneva on Wednesday in the absence of the Sudanese army, which has objected to the format of the negotiations.
The war in Sudan, which began last year, has led to one of the world’s worst humanitarian and displacement crises.
The Sudanese army, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF – under Mohamad Hamdan Dagalo, better known as “Hemedti” – have been vying for power and control of the African country of 46 million people.
Rights groups have called on both sides to avoid civilian harm and enable humanitarian access.
More than 25 million people are facing acute hunger across Sudan, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a UN-backed body that monitors global hunger.
Earlier this week, the Sudanese army, which dominates the governing Transitional Sovereignty Council, announced the opening of the Adre border crossing into North Darfur. The IPC declared famine in parts of that region on August 1.
The RSF had also said it would facilitate the passage of humanitarian convoys through the Debbah crossing, north of Khartoum.
“The RSF remains steadfast in its commitment to ensuring the safe passage and protection of humanitarian convoys, in strict adherence to international humanitarian law,” the paramilitary group said in a statement.
It is not clear whether the two decisions are linked to the Geneva talks.
As the negotiations were ongoing in Switzerland, The Associated Press and AFP news agencies reported – citing local and medical sources – that an RSF attack in the Jalgini village in the southeastern state of Sennar killed dozens of people this week.
The war in Sudan has displaced more than 10 million people and triggered a public health disaster.
On Friday, a World Health Organization (WHO) official said a cholera outbreak has killed at least 316 people in the country.
The US has said that the talks in Geneva aim to end the fighting and alleviate the suffering in Sudan. On Friday, Washington called on the Sudanese Armed Forces to join the negotiations.
“The opening of Adre border crossing is an important result at a crucial time for humanitarian efforts to deliver assistance to those most in need and to avoid a worsening famine,” US Special Envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello said in a social media post.
“We continue our efforts to save Sudanese lives and silence the guns. The RSF remains here ready for talks to start; SAF needs to decide to come.”
The US has taken a leading role in the Sudan peace talks. The two countries had bitter ties for years until the removal of longtime Sudanese ruler Omar al-Bashir, who was overthrown by the military after mass protests in 2019.
Khartoum and Washington re-established diplomatic ties in 2020. Sudan also agreed to establish relations with Israel – the US’s top Middle East ally – and was removed from the US’s list of “state sponsors of terrorism”.
But efforts to bring Sudan under civilian and democratic rule in the post-Bashir era have failed.
The Sudanese military staged a coup against the civilian government of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok in October 2021, leading to his resignation in early 2022.
The fighting between the army and the RSF broke out the following year, and Hemedti was expelled from the Transitional Sovereignty Council.