Sudan ceasefire negotiation stalls

The possibility of a ceasefire in Sudan is stalled. This Wednesday, the Sudanese Army blocked a truce with its adversaries, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), by suspending its participation in the talks that began on May 6 with the mediation of the United States and Saudi Arabia.

The Army explained that it made this decision because “the rebels never implemented any of the provisions of a short-term ceasefire, which required their withdrawal from hospitals and residential buildings, and they violated the truce several times,” said a Sudanese official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to the AFP agency.

The truce was negotiated and is being remotely monitored by Saudi Arabia and the United States, who said it has enabled the delivery of aid to some two million people.

The mediators also said that the Army, which depends on aviation and artillery; and the Rapid Support Forces, paramilitaries with a lighter armed force; Those who have been at war since April 15 of this year, had agreed to extend for five days the humanitarian truce they maintained, frequently violated last week.

01:12

However, on Tuesday, residents again experienced heavy fighting in southern Khartoum and in Omdurman, across the Nile River.

The fighting persisted in their hostilities despite the extension of this ceasefire, which sought to deliver vital humanitarian aid in this country on the brink of famine.

There is no ceasefire in Sudan… There is a huge gap between the reality on the ground in Sudan and the diplomacy in Jeddah,” said researcher Rashid Abdi of the Rift Valley Institute.

To date, the conflict has left at least 850 dead and more than 5,500 injured, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). It has also caused the internal and external displacement of more than 1.3 million people, according to the UN.

The face of reality by not stopping the confrontation

Sudan, one of the poorest countries in the world, worsens its situation due to the internal conflict that directly hits the social base. Proof of this is that 25 of the 45 million Sudanese need humanitarian aid to survive, according to the UN. Among them, more than 13.6 million children, says Unicef.

In addition, the hospital crisis has increased. Three quarters of the hospitals in combat zones are out of service and the rest need equipment and more medicines.

Mobility is difficult, even for aid workers, who have only been able to deliver small amounts of food or medicine because shipments are blocked at customs.

And Darfur’s isolation from the world is so real that some regions are without electricity, internet or telephone.

A discouraging panorama to which is added the announcement of the Haggar group, an important company in the agricultural sector and the largest employer in Sudan, which is preparing to suspend activities and investments in the country.

The most difficult part has to do with the spread of violence among citizens. According to the Forces for Freedom and Change (FLC), the civilian bloc ousted from power during the coup led in 2021 by the two generals, then allies and now at war, calls to arm civilians have increased.

For example, Governor Minni Minnawi, a former rebel leader now close to the Army, called on the population on Sunday to take up arms “to protect their property.”

So Chad, South Sudan or Ethiopia, neighboring states mired in violence, fear contagion and ask the UN for help.

The genesis of the conflict

The beginning of the current conflict in Sudan has clear names: Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.

Army and FAR leaders emerged from militias the government used to quell an earlier uprising in Darfur, and held high positions in Sudan’s ruling council after former President Omar al-Bashir was ousted in 2019.

This ended with a popular revolt in which the Army and FAR leaders staged a coup two years later, but had to cede leadership to civilians. In the promised transition to democracy, they disagreed over the chain of command, the distribution of power, and the restructuring of the FAR, which degenerated until it ended in the current confrontation scenario.

Both the head of the Army, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the FAR General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, former commander of the militias known as ‘Hemetti’, who have been waging this escalation of the conflict for power since April 15, have found that accusing each other, the war becomes a labyrinth with no way out. And the only evidence in this case has been the repeated violations of the agreements by both parties.

With EFE, AFP, Reuters and local media