Asmaa Al-Husseini (Khartoum)
The two parties to the Sudanese conflict resumed negotiations yesterday in the city of Jeddah, under American-Saudi auspices, to put an end to the crisis that has been ongoing for 7 months and has claimed the lives of more than 9,000 people, according to what the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced yesterday. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia welcomed the resumption of talks between representatives of the armed forces and representatives of the Rapid Support Forces in the city of Jeddah, calling on both sides of the crisis to resume what was agreed upon between them in the Jeddah Declaration “Commitment to Protect Civilians in Sudan” on May 11, and the short-term ceasefire agreement. Signed by both parties in Jeddah on May 20, 2023.
The Kingdom affirmed its keenness on unity of ranks and the importance of giving precedence to wisdom and stopping the conflict to stop the bloodshed and alleviate the suffering of the Sudanese people, in order to reach a political agreement under which security, stability and prosperity will be achieved for Sudan and its people, according to the Saudi Foreign Ministry statement. A joint representative of both the African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the bloc concerned with development in East Africa, is also participating in the Jeddah negotiations. The Sudanese Armed Forces confirmed in a statement that “in response to a generous invitation from the two mediating countries in the Jeddah platform (the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States of America) to resume the negotiating process with the Rapid Support Forces, and out of the belief of the Sudanese Armed Forces that negotiation is one of the means that may end the crisis, we accepted the invitation to go to… grandmother”.
The Rapid Support Forces also announced that they had sent a delegation to Saudi Arabia to negotiate at the invitation of the Kingdom and the United States.
On the eve of the start of the negotiations, the Vice President of the Sudanese Sovereignty Council, Malek Agar, announced that the government had presented a road map to end the crisis through 4 stages, which are the separation of forces, the humanitarian operation, the integration of the Rapid Support Forces and the establishment of a single army, ending with a political process by agreeing on a constitution that determines how to govern the country. .
Sudanese experts and politicians expressed to Al-Ittihad their hope that diplomatic pressure would push both sides of the crisis to respond to the Jeddah platform and commit to an immediate and comprehensive ceasefire to end the current crisis and open humanitarian corridors to deliver urgent relief aid to those affected.
They also expressed their fears that both parties would attempt to obstruct the negotiations, which would complicate the crisis and exacerbate human suffering, stressing that the future of the negotiations depends to a large extent on the extent of the seriousness of the international community in dealing with the issue on the one hand, and the extent of the ability of the civilian components to present themselves as a primary party in the equation, Then the support that the initiatives proposed in the region can provide to the Jeddah Platform in order to enhance and strengthen it and push it forward.
Over more than seven months of fighting, more than 9,000 people were killed, according to a United Nations tally, and more than 6.5 million Sudanese left their homes and were displaced within their country or took refuge in neighboring countries.
The World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that the number of families suffering from hunger has nearly doubled in Sudan, six months after the crisis that plunged the country into a state of chaos.
According to the United Nations, more than half of the population needs humanitarian aid to survive.
The World Health Organization and UNICEF said, “The number of families suffering from hunger has nearly doubled.” They warned in a press statement that “700,000 children suffer from severe acute malnutrition, and 100,000 children need life-saving treatment due to acute malnutrition accompanied by medical complications.”
A UNICEF spokesman recently said that more than 20.3 million people, or more than 42% of the country’s population, face high levels of acute food insecurity, especially in areas where clashes are raging, namely Darfur, Khartoum, South Kordofan, and West Kordofan.
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