Paramilitary RSF agrees to US-mediated talks on Sudan war

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has said it is ready to participate after the United States invited the warring sides in Sudan to mediate ceasefire talks.

RSF leader Mohammed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo said early on Wednesday that the paramilitary group will participate. The US on Tuesday invited the RSF and Sudanese army to meet for talks in Switzerland on August 14, as efforts to end the conflict mount.

The US announced that the negotiations will be co-hosted by Saudi Arabia and include the African Union, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Nations as observers.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement: “The talks in Switzerland aim to reach a nationwide cessation of violence, enabling humanitarian access to all those in need, and develop a robust monitoring and verification mechanism to ensure implementation of any agreement.”

Sudan’s army, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has yet to respond to the invitation.

Daglo said that the invitation to negotiate was “welcome”.

“We reaffirm our firm stance … which is the insistence on saving lives, stopping the fighting, and paving the way for a peaceful, negotiated political solution that restores the country to civilian rule and the path of democratic transition,” the paramilitary leader said in a post on X.

Effort to revive talks

The brutal war between the RSF and the military government has raged in Sudan since April 2023. Tens of thousands of people have been killed, and almost 10 million displaced, according to the United Nations, amid reports of numerous war crimes by both sides and a humanitarian crisis.

A UN report issued on Tuesday found that nearly 26 million people in Sudan are not getting enough food due to the war.

Blinken said that Washington remains “committed to working with partners to end this devastating war”.

“These talks do not aim to address broader political issues. As the Sudanese people have long demanded, Sudan’s governance must return to civilians and civilians must play the leading role in defining a process to address political issues and restore Sudan’s democratic transition,” he said.

However, efforts so far to bring the war to an end have met with little success.

Direct talks in Saudi Arabia last year between the RSF and the army produced only agreements for temporary truces – which were quickly violated – and repeatedly failed to end the war.

Subsequent mediation attempts have failed to get the warring sides into the same room, as both vied for the tactical advantage on the ground.

Indirect talks held earlier this month in Geneva by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s personal envoy were called an “encouraging” first step by the UN.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters that the goal of the talks in Switzerland would be to try to resurrect and build on last year’s talks in Jeddah.

Both the RSF and the army continue to trade accusations of war crimes, including deliberately targeting civilians, indiscriminately shelling residential areas, and blocking humanitarian aid.

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