US wants to call ceasefire talks with Sudan, even without Khartoum

The talks, which will take place at an undisclosed location in Switzerland, are scheduled to begin on Wednesday and could last up to ten days.

While the RSF immediately accepted the US invitation, the Sudanese government expressed concerns about Washington’s actions and has so far not confirmed that it will accept the invitation.

“The RSF has given its unconditional consent to participate,” said Tom Perriello, the US special envoy for Sudan.

“We have had extensive discussions with the SAF (Sudanese Armed Forces), but they have not yet given us any commitment” to come to Switzerland.

However, “we will move forward with this event this week and that has been made clear to the parties,” Perriello said at a press conference at the U.S. mission in Geneva.

There can be “no formal mediation between the two parties if the SAF does not participate. In this case, we will continue to focus on the international and technical elements,” he said.

“This is a great gathering of experts and we will move forward. If SAF changes its mind and wants to participate, we can … have that mediated component.”

Talks between a Sudanese delegation and US mediators on the conditions for the Sudanese government’s participation ended in Saudi Arabia in recent days “without agreement,” Sudanese Minerals Minister and head of the delegation, Mohammed Abu Namo, said on Sunday.

The Sudanese government added that “further discussions” were needed before participating in ceasefire talks.

Sudan’s media minister Graham Abdelkader said the Sudanese government “rejects any new observers or participants” – especially after Washington “insisted on the participation of the United Arab Emirates as an observer”.

“Having Egypt and the United Arab Emirates at the negotiating table is an incredibly important potential tool to ensure that there is not just an agreement on paper … they can become more of a guarantor,” Perriello said.

He said the talks would focus on a cessation of hostilities, protection of civilians and access for humanitarian aid.

The envoy said this was not the right place for a political dialogue, saying that “hours and hours are being wasted on things that have nothing whatsoever to do with ending the violence.”

“Without an immediate, massive and coordinated global response, we risk seeing tens of thousands of avoidable deaths in the coming months. We are at a tipping point – a catastrophic, devastating tipping point,” said Othman Belbeisi, Middle East and North Africa director of the International Organization for Migration.

According to the UN, the conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

According to IOM, new figures show that there are over 10.7 million internally displaced people within Sudan, many of them uprooted multiple times.

Meanwhile, 2.3 million people have fled across the borders to neighboring countries.

Red Cross chief Mirjana Spoljaric expressed her hope that the talks would lead to agreements that would enable expanded humanitarian aid and access to fragile communities.

The President of the International Committee of the Red Cross called for “very concrete humanitarian steps that will help build confidence and remove some of the immediate obstacles to a ceasefire agreement.”

A spokesman for Antonio Guterres said the UN chief wanted “an immediate cessation of hostilities and a lasting ceasefire.”

“He calls on the parties to return to political dialogue as this is the only way to a negotiated solution,” the spokesman said.