UN envoy sees Sudan combatants more open to talks

CAIRO – Air strikes and artillery rocked Khartoum on Saturday as Sudan entered a third week of fighting between rival military forces despite a ceasefire, prompting more civilians to flee and renewed warnings of wider instability if the war is not stopped.

As dark smoke rose over Khartoum, a UN envoy offered a possible flicker of hope, saying the warring sides who have so far shown no sign of compromise were now more open to negotiations – though no date had been set.

Mr Volker Perthes, the United Nations Special Representative for Sudan, said the sides had nominated representatives for talks, although there was a practical question over whether they could get there to “actually sit together”. The suggested location for the negotiations is Jeddah in Saudi Arabia or Juba in South Sudan.

The prospects of negotiations between the leaders of the two sides have so far seemed bleak. On Friday, the leader of the Sudanese army, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, said in an interview he would never sit down with the “rebel” leader of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), referring to General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who said he would talk only after the army ceased hostilities.

Hundreds of people have been killed since April 15, when a long-simmering power struggle between the army and the paramilitary RSF boiled over into conflict.

Despite shelling early in the morning, residents of Khartoum and its neighbouring cities said the fighting had been less intense on Saturday than in recent days.

The fighting has pitched Sudan towards a civil war that has derailed an internationally backed transition towards democratic elections and could destabilise a volatile region.

The sides have continued to battle it out during a series of ceasefires mediated by foreign powers, notably the United States. The latest 72-hour truce expires at midnight on Sunday.

On Saturday, the RSF accused the army of violating the ceasefire in areas under its control.

There was no immediate comment from the army, which has previously blamed the RSF for violations and said on Saturday its forces were continuing to work to end “the rebellion”.

Mr Perthes noted that he had told the UN Security Council that both sides thought they could win the conflict, most recently in a briefing a couple of days ago, but he also said attitudes were changing.

“They both think they will win, but they are both sort of more open to negotiations. The word ‘negotiations’ or ‘talks’ was not there in their discourse in the first week or so,” he said.

While both sides had made statements that the other side had to “surrender or die”, Mr Perthes said, they were also saying “okay, we accept... some form of talks”.

“They have both accepted that this war cannot continue,” he added.

While the army has conducted daily air strikes and says it has maintained control of vital installations, residents say the RSF has a strong presence on the ground in Khartoum.

Fighting between the forces has damaged electricity, water and telecommunications infrastructure, and looting has destroyed businesses and homes. Tens of thousands of Sudanese have fled fighting either to other towns or to neighbouring countries.

The immediate task, Mr Perthes said, was to develop a monitoring mechanism for ceasefires, which had been agreed to several times but had failed to stop the fighting.

Jeddah had been offered as a venue for “military-technical” talks, while Juba had been offered as part of a regional proposal by East African states for political talks.

Mr Perthes said that signs of the impending conflict had been visible in early April as international and local mediators scrambled to ease tensions, but they had thought a “temporary de-escalation” had been achieved the night before fighting began.

REUTERS