(Bloomberg) -- The US invited Sudan’s warring sides to cease-fire talks in Switzerland next month, signaling a new push to end the 15-month-old conflict that’s killed tens of thousands of people.
Sudan’s army and the rival Rapid Support Forces militia are urged to approach the negotiations starting Aug. 14 “constructively, with the imperative to save lives, stop the fighting, and create a path to a negotiated political solution to the conflict,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday in a statement.
RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo said in a post on X his group would take part, though it wasn’t immediately clear if the military had accepted the invitation. A spokesman for the army-led government’s foreign ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The initiative comes amid mounting fears of famine in the vast North African nation, where the conflict that erupted in April 2023 between Dagalo’s forces and the army led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has forced almost a quarter of the 40-million-plus population to flee their homes. Foreign powers are accused of involvement that’s fueled the fighting.
The proposed Swiss talks will include the African Union, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and the United Nations as observers and aim “to reach a nationwide cessation of violence, enabling humanitarian access to all those in need,” Blinken said.
--With assistance from Mohammed Alamin.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
