Sudan: Saudis and Americans want a new “effective” truce

UPGRADE DAY

Saudi Arabia and the United States seek to “continue discussions” between the warring parties in Sudan for a new “effective” ceasefire, Riyadh said on Sunday, as fighting between military and paramilitaries enters its eighth week with no end in sight. 

Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitaries claimed on Sunday that they shot down a fighter jet after the army “launched a daring air assault against the positions of our forces” in northern Khartoum, Sudan.

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A military source also told AFP that a Chinese-made fighter jet crashed near the Wadi Seidna base, north of Khartoum, due to a “technical failure”. Witnesses said they saw a plane moving from south to north of the capital, flames shooting out from behind.

The Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Army and paramilitary envoys are still in Jeddah, on Saudi Arabia's Red Sea, where negotiations had been officially suspended.

“Saudi Arabia and the United States are seeking to continue discussions between the two [Sudanese] delegations to facilitate humanitarian aid,” he added.

The two mediators called for “a new ceasefire that is effectively enforced”, knowing that the two previous truces they had negotiated have remained unanswered.

Riyadh and Washington also want that the parties in conflict agree on “the measures to be taken in the short term for the resumption of negotiations in Jeddah”.

On Wednesday, the army withdrew from talks meant to create safe corridors for civilians and humanitarian aid. The next day, the United States and Saudi Arabia said they were officially suspending them.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Saudi Arabia from June 6 to 8. The United States says it is ready to resume discussions in Jeddah with the Sudanese generals if they are “serious” in their desire to respect the ceasefire.

What to know about the war in Sudan

In seven weeks, the war between the army, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, and the paramilitaries of General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo, has left more than 1,800 dead and more than a million and a half displaced and refugees.< /p>

The humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate on the ground, where the population lacks everything, whereas before the war, a third of the 45 million Sudanese already depended on international aid, in one of the poorest countries in the world.

On Thursday, Washington announced sanctions against two army arms companies and two companies, including one operating in Sudan's gold mines, run by General Daglo and two of his brothers.

< p>Despite the announcement of sanctions, the fighting with heavy weapons continues every day to claim victims, looting continues and the number of displaced people continues to increase.

In Khartoum, civilians are deprived of running water and faced with cash shortages and chronic power cuts. Hospitals located in combat zones are partially functioning, if at all.

The situation is even more serious in Darfur, which borders Chad, and could deteriorate further with the approach of the rainy season , synonymous in Sudan with resurgence of malaria, food insecurity and child malnutrition.

Darfur, home to a quarter of Sudan's population, has never managed to recover from a devastating war two decades, responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and the displacement of two million others.