Sudanese hope that talks between warring factions in Jeddah would put an end to the bloodshed that has killed hundreds and produced a mass exodus, but there is little chance of a lasting respite.
Since Saturday, the army and the opposition paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Jeddah have not updated their conversations.
The combatants have said that they would only discuss humanitarian issues like as safe passage, not the fighting. Several ceasefires have been violated since April 15.
On Monday, witnesses reported air strikes and fighting in Khartoum.
“If the Jeddah talks fail to end the war, we will be unable to return to our homes and lives,” said Tamader Ibrahim, 35, a government employee in Bahri, across the Blue Nile from Khartoum. “We’re waiting for these negotiations because they’re our only hope.”
Doctor Mahjoub Salah, 28, claimed the capital’s dangerous areas changed on a regular basis.
Salah moved his family to a south Khartoum flat last month after witnessing brutal violence and a neighbor being shot in the abdomen in his central Khartoum neighborhood of Al Amarat.
“We’re still waiting for our passports, but we’re not sure how long that will take,” Salah said. “From Port Sudan to Saudi Arabia is our plan.”
Thousands more trying to leave.
The US-Saudi policy is the first serious effort to end the conflict that has turned parts of Khartoum into war zones, blocked an internationally agreed-upon plan to reinstall civilian rule after years of unrest, and resulted in a humanitarian crisis.
According to the Saudi Foreign Ministry, “pre-negotiation” talks began on Saturday and “will continue in the coming days in the expectation of reaching an effective short-term ceasefire to facilitate humanitarian assistance.”
Conversations are prohibited. “We are not for negotiation right now with (RSF chief) General Hemedti,” Dafallah Alhaj, an envoy to General Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan, said in South Sudan on Monday.
“We are only looking for a ceasefire to create a safe environment for a humanitarian corridor, but we are not prepared for direct peace talks,” he added.
Sudan’s Forces of Freedom and Change, which is steering the country’s transition to civilian democracy after decades of military control, welcomed the Jeddah talks on Saturday.
Analysts fear that hardliners in delegations, as well as recent RSF territorial advances, may dissuade the powerful militia from making concessions.
“Key domestic and international stakeholders are not present, such as Egypt and the UAE, who have so far demonstrated that they can guarantee a ceasefire,” Sudanese research group Confluence Advisory director Kholood Khair said.
“The absence of civilians recreates the failures of previous political negotiations,” she added, adding that African states in favour of civilian rule in Sudan were also missing.
Battles have killed hundreds, injured thousands, hampered aid, and drove 100,000 people abroad since mid-April.
According to his spokesman, UN assistance chief Martin Griffiths is in Jeddah for Sudan humanitarian talks.
The RSF released a video of a Sudanese army member surrendering. Gunshots were heard, according to one witness.
According to an army source, the men in the film were part of a band that performed ceremonial music inside Khartoum’s presidential palace, where RSF forces apprehended them at the outset of the war last month.
Thousands of people are attempting to flee Port Sudan by boats to Saudi Arabia, expensive commercial flights from Sudan’s lone airport, or evacuation aircraft.
Sudan has seen multiple battles due to its location between Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, and the deadly Sahel region.
The majority occurred in remote regions. Sudanese are especially concerned this time due to heavy fighting in Khartoum, Africa’s biggest city.
Since the outbreak of conflict, the UN refugee agency has reported over 30,000 people entering into South Sudan, with 90% of them being South Sudanese. It implies a far larger number. South Sudan won independence from Khartoum in 2011 after decades of civil war. Aid organizations are concerned that the influx would exacerbate the humanitarian crisis.
