Efforts to hold peace talks between two warring generals in Sudan appeared to have faltered as yet another cease-fire was broken and the African Union planned an emergency session to discuss how to end the conflict.
(Bloomberg) — Efforts to hold peace talks between two warring generals in Sudan appeared to have faltered as yet another cease-fire was broken and the African Union planned an emergency session to discuss how to end the conflict.
The fighting in the North African country, now in its third week, has killed more than 500 people and sent about 50,000 fleeing across borders, according to the United Nations. The region is now preparing for the possibility that more than 800,000 may flood into neighboring countries, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said on Monday.
Airstrikes, heavy shelling and gunfire have continued across strategic sites in the capital, Khartoum, as Sudan’s army sought to target bases and supply lines used by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, according to Western diplomats and an internal UN document seen by Bloomberg.
A UN spokesperson said a planned meeting between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who leads the RSF, in Saudi Arabia — which has strongly backed both sides in recent years — has been agreed to but a date hasn’t yet been set. A competing effort to broker talks by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, a bloc of regional African countries, could complicate matters, people briefed on the situation said.
Ex-Sudanese Premier Warns All-Out War Could Be Worse Than Syria
In statements, both sides accused the other of breaking yet another cease-fire. Spokespeople for the army and RSF didn’t respond to questions regarding peace talks.
Emergency Meeting
The AU will hold an emergency meeting involving senior regional officials on Tuesday afternoon to discuss how to end the conflict, AU chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat’s office said in a statement.
But in a dangerous turn, Human Rights Watch said militia members from the ethnic Massalit and well-armed Arab communities in the Darfur region have joined the fray to “devastating” effect, destroying property and pillaging residential neighborhoods.
Regional leaders have repeatedly warned that a protracted conflict in Sudan could bring in the various ethnic militias, insurgencies and rebel groups that operate in the area’s mineral-rich borderlands.
Sudan’s Neighbors Pay the Price as Rival Forces Vie for Power
In Nyala, southern Darfur, robberies and incidents of looting have been widespread in recent days, an internal UN document dated April 30 said. It noted the city’s administration appeared to have split between the two warring parties.
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