Air raids in Sudan capital ahead of first direct talks

Air strikes battered Sudan’s capital on Saturday, as fighting entered a fourth week only hours before the warring parties are to meet in Saudi Arabia for their first direct talks.

Hundreds of people have been killed since the outbreak of the conflict on 15 April between Sudan’s de facto leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who leads the regular army, and his deputy turned rival Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The fighting has seen warplanes bomb targets in Khartoum and the rival generals’ forces engage in intense street battles in the city of five million inhabitants. Multiple truces have been reached, but none has been respected.

In a joint statement, the United States and Saudi Arabia said the army and RSF would hold direct discussions in the Saudi city of Jeddah on Saturday, describing them as “pre-negotiation talks”.

“Saudi Arabia and the United States urge both parties to take in consideration the interests of the Sudanese nation and its people and actively engage in the talks toward a ceasefire and end to the conflict,” they said.

Saudi foreign minister prince Faisal bin Farhan confirmed “the presence of representatives” from both sides, but there was no immediate indication that the talks had begun.

Sudanese army spokesman Brigadier General Nabil Abdalla told AFP the talks were “only over the truce and how it can be correctly implemented to serve the humanitarian side for civilians”.

Daglo, commonly known as Hemeti, took to Twitter to welcome the talks and thank the US, Saudi Arabia and other international players for their efforts.

The general, whose RSF descended from the Janjaweed militia accused of war crimes in Sudan’s Darfur region, affirmed “the need to reach a civilian transitional government that... achieves the aspirations of our people”.

Both the army and the RSF have sought to present themselves as protectors of democratic values, despite staging a coup in 2021 that derailed the country’s transition to civilian rule.

International mediation

On Saturday morning, witnesses said warplanes pounded various parts of Khartoum, where telecommunications company MTN said all of its services had been interrupted.

The army and the RSF accused one another of opening fire on the Turkish ambassador’s car, but did not report any casualties.

Burhan had given his backing to a seven-day ceasefire announced by South Sudan on Wednesday, but early on Friday the RSF said it was extending by three days a previous truce brokered under US-Saudi mediation.

The US-Saudi statement noted the efforts of other countries and organisations behind this weekend’s talks, including Britain, the United Arab Emirates, the Arab League, the African Union and other groups.

Khalid Omer Yousif, a former minister, expressed hope the talks would lead to “a complete ceasefire that paves the way for a comprehensive political solution”.

But an analyst warned there was little consensus in the international community about what to do beyond establishing a ceasefire.

“The lowest common denominator of the international community is a cessation of hostilities, but there is no apparent consensus on what to do beyond that initial objective,” said Aly Verjee, Sudan researcher at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.

He said that to be meaningful any new ceasefire declaration needed the warring parties to commit to “consequences in the likely event of ceasefire breaches” and a “credible process to monitor and verify ceasefire non-compliance.”

Nearly 500 civilians killed

At least 700 people have been killed in the fighting so far, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project. Thousands more have been wounded and hundreds of thousands displaced either internally or across the border to neighbouring countries.

The Sudanese doctors’ union said 479 of the dead were civilians. Another 2,518 civilians were wounded.

Neighbouring South Sudan, which had negotiated the seven-day truce extension, said late Friday that its president, Salva Kiir, had spoken to the warring generals about “his concerns and those of the IGAD leaders” from the East African regional grouping.

While the army had previously said it favoured “African solutions to the continent’s issues”, it was ultimately the US-Saudi initiative that gained leverage as Sudan has been suspended from the African Union since the October 2021 coup.

Burhan and Daglo had together orchestrated the putsch, derailing the democratic transition that had been painstakingly stitched together following the ouster of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir in 2019.

But they later fell out in a bitter power struggle, most recently over the integration of the RSF into the army.

The announcement of the direct talks came following warnings from US intelligence chief Avril Haines of a “protracted” conflict that would “create a greater potential for spillover challenges in the region”.

Fighting raged on despite warnings from US President Joe Biden on Thursday of possible sanctions against those responsible for “threatening the peace, security, and stability of Sudan” and “undermining Sudan’s democratic transition”.