US invites Sudan’s warring parties for talks in Switzerland in August

A view of a street in the city of Omdurman damaged in the year-long civil war in Sudan, April 7, 2024. (Reuters)

• Antony Blinken: ‘The scale of death, suffering, and destruction in Sudan is devastating. This senseless conflict must end’
• The war in Sudan has forced almost 10 million people from their homes, sparked warnings of famine and waves of ethnically-driven violence

WASHINGTON: The United States has invited the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces for US-mediated ceasefire talks starting on Aug. 14 in Switzerland, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday.
The talks will include the African Union, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and the United Nations as observers, Blinken said in a statement.
“The scale of death, suffering, and destruction in Sudan is devastating. This senseless conflict must end,” Blinken said, calling on the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to attend the talks and approach them constructively.
The war in Sudan, which erupted in April 2023, has forced almost 10 million people from their homes, sparked warnings of famine and waves of ethnically-driven violence blamed largely on the RSF.
Talks in Jeddah between the army and RSF that were sponsored by the United States and Saudi Arabia broke down at the end of last year.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters on Tuesday that the goal of the talks in Switzerland was to build on work from Jeddah and try to move the talks to the next phase.
“We just want to get the parties back to the table, and what we determined is that bringing the parties, the host nations and the observers together is the best shot that we have right now at getting the nationwide cessation of violence,” Miller said.