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Sudan on edge as warring parties to hold talks
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People gather to ride a truck to flee outside Khartoum, during clashes between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the army, in Khartoum, Sudan April 28, 2023. (Reuters/STRINGER)
S
udan's warring parties were to hold talks on Saturday in the Saudi city of Jeddah, international mediators said, as they pressed for an end to a conflict that has killed hundreds and sent around 100,000 fleeing abroad.
The US-Saudi initiative is the first serious attempt to end three weeks of fighting that have has turned parts of Khartoum into war zones and derailed an internationally backed plan to usher in civilian rule following years of unrest and uprisings.
Riyadh and Washington welcomed the "pre-negotiation talks" between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and urged them to actively engage following numerous violated ceasefires.
But there were early signs that both sides remain unwilling to make compromises to end the bloodshed.
In the city of Bahri across the Nile from Khartoum, warplanes were heard overnight and explosions startled residents. "We don't leave the house because we're scared of stray bullets," said a local who gave his name as Ahmed.
An eyewitness in Eastern Khartoum reported gun clashes and airstrikes over residential areas on Saturday.
The RSF did not immediately confirm its attendance in Jeddah.
Sudan's armed forces said they sent a delegation to the Red Sea city on Friday evening, but special envoy Dafallah Alhaj said the army would not sit down directly with any delegation that the "rebellious" RSF might send.
The warring sides have previously said they will only discuss a humanitarian truce and not an end to the fighting.
It erupted on April 15 between the army of Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the RSF of commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, a former militia leader known as Hemedti, following the collapse of an internationally backed plan for a transition to democracy.
Burhan, a career army officer, heads a ruling council installed after a 2021 military coup and the 2019 ouster of long-time autocrat Omar al-Bashir, while Hemedti, who made his name leading militias in the Darfur conflict, is his deputy.
Prior to the fighting, Hemedti had been taking steps like moving closer to a civilian party that suggest he has big political plans. Burhan has blamed the war on his "ambitions."
Humanitarian catastrophe
Western powers have backed the transition to a civilian government in a country that sits at a strategic crossroads between Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Africa's volatile Sahel region.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan was travelling to Saudi Arabia for talks with Saudi leaders.
Saudi Arabia has had close ties to Burhan and Hemedti, both of whom sent troops to help the Saudi-led coalition in its war against the Houthi group in Yemen. The kingdom is also focused on security in the Red Sea, which it shares with Sudan.
The UN has significantly cut back its operations in Sudan after three of its employees were killed and its warehouses were looted, and sought guarantees of safe passage of humanitarian aid.
The fighting has also impacted vital infrastructure and caused the closure of most hospitals in conflict areas. UN agencies have warned of a humanitarian catastrophe if clashes continue.
The World Health Organisation said on Saturday it had delivered medical aid to Port Sudan, but was awaiting security and access clearances that have prevented several such shipments from reaching Khartoum, where the few hospitals operating are running out of supplies.
