Envoys of Sudan’s paramilitary forces will attend talks with the army scheduled for Saturday in Jeddah, their leader said, as the gathering’s international mediators pressed for an end to a conflict that has devastated the country,
Reuters reports.
The U.S.-Saudi initiative in Jeddah is the first serious attempt to end three weeks of fighting that have has turned parts of the Sudanese capital Khartoum into war zones and derailed an internationally backed plan to usher in civilian rule following years of unrest and uprisings.
Riyadh and Washington earlier welcomed the “pre-negotiation talks” between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and urged them to actively engage following numerous violated ceasefires.
But both sides have made it clear they would only discuss a humanitarian truce, not negotiate an end to the war.
Confirming his group’s attendance, RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commonly know as Hemedti, said he hoped the talks would achieve their intended aim of securing safe passage for civilians.
Sudan’s armed forces said they sent a delegation to the Red Sea city on Friday evening, but special envoy Dafallah Alhaj said the army would not sit down directly with any delegation that the “rebellious” RSF might send.
Hemedti has meanwhile vowed to either capture or kill army leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan Burhan, and there was also evidence on the ground that both sides remain unwilling to make compromises to end the bloodshed.
In the city of Bahri across the Nile from Khartoum, warplanes were heard overnight and explosions startled residents. “We don’t leave the house because we’re scared of stray bullets,” said a local who gave his name as Ahmed.
An eyewitness in Eastern Khartoum reported gun clashes and airstrikes over residential areas on Saturday.
