Sudan’s army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) said they will return to the US- and Saudi-convened negotiations in Jeddah on Thursday, as a six-month war has taken its toll on the country and on both forces.
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The Sudanese army on Wednesday accepted the invitation as “negotiations are one of the means that may end the conflict,” but said that it would not stop fighting.
The RSF also said it accepted the invitation, but on Wednesday published video of its second-in-command leading soldiers in Nyala, a major war zone.
Fighting broke out in mid-April over plans to integrate troops four years after the two forces ousted President Omar al-Bashir and 18 months after they led a coup to oust civilian partners.
Since then, fighting has caused what UN aid chief Martin Griffiths has called “one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in recent history”, decimating the capital and other major cities, displacing almost 6 million people and killing thousands.
The RSF has been accused of an ethnic massacre in West Darfur.
The United States and Saudi Arabia suspended talks in June after numerous ceasefire violations.
“Both sides privately indicated that they are ready to resume talks,” said one of the US officials, adding that months of fighting and a humanitarian crisis had weighed on both sides.
Eyewitnesses say that the pace of fighting has slowed in the past week, with both sides resorting to long-range artillery that have rained projectiles on residential neighborhoods.
Military sources say the army has struggled to make repairs to aging warplanes while the RSF has struggled to treat wounded soldiers.
Both have had difficulty paying their exhausted forces, the sources said.
The African Union and regional body IGAD would be joining the Jeddah talks, which would initially focus on humanitarian issues, ceasefires and confidence-building…
