Ceasefire talks seeking to end Sudan's 16-month civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) began in Geneva on Wednesday, but neither warring side entered the negotiating room. The talks, which also aim to address the world's largest humanitarian crisis, took place without the presence of the rival military factions.
However, the RSF delegation at least arrived in Switzerland on Tuesday night, while the SAF had earlier said it would boycott the talks. Uncertainty over the presence of the two warring parties hangs over this week's talks.
“It is still our goal to do everything we can along with our Swiss and Saudi co-hosts, and the participation of Egypt, the UAE, African Union and the UN, to make progress this week,” Tom Perriello, US special envoy for Sudan, said earlier this week.
Fighting between the army and the RSF, which began on April 15 last year has killed and injured tens of thousands of people, resulted in widespread atrocities, and caused massive displacement. Over the course of sixteen months, more than 10.4 million people - including more than 5 million children - have been forced to flee their homes as a result of the ongoing conflict.
While more than 8.1 million people - Sudanese and refugees already living in the country - have been displaced within Sudan since the start of the war, more than 2.3 million women, men and children have sought refuge in other countries.
The talks, hosted by Switzerland and moderated by the United States and Saudi Arabia, aim to achieve a cease-fire between the two parties, ensure safe and unimpeded humanitarian access for all those in need, and establish a monitoring and verification mechanism to oversee the implementation of any agreement.
Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the African Union (AU) and the United Nations are participating as observers. Delegations from Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, the US, Egypt, the UAE, the African Union and the UN attended the opening session today.
US Special Envoy to Sudan Perriello said in a statement on social media that the delegations are focused on ensuring that the warring parties abide by their Jeddah commitments and their implementation.
Sudan's warring parties signed a commitment in May 2023 that set guidelines for allowing humanitarian aid into the country. However, the "Declaration of Commitment to Protect Civilians of Sudan" signed in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia - also known as the "Jeddah Declaration" - did not include a ceasefire.
“Belligerents must respect international humanitarian law and enable humanitarian assistance. It is high time for the guns to be silenced”, Perriello said.
“We are hard at work in Switzerland on the first day of intensive diplomatic efforts for Sudan to support humanitarian access, cessation of hostilities, and compliance in accordance with previous Jeddah outcomes, other efforts, and international humanitarian law,” the delegations said in a joint statement on Wednesday.
On Sunday, consultations between the Sudanese government and the United States in Saudi Arabia ended without an agreement on whether an army or government delegation would attend the Geneva peace talks, casting doubt on the ceasefire negotiations.
“We have had preliminary engagements with RSF. We have had extensive engagements with SAF. But they have not yet given us an affirmation, which would be necessary today for moving forward on the 14th,” the US special envoy for Sudan told journalists in Geneva on Monday.
The United States, which is facilitating the talks, has insisted that the event will go ahead regardless, saying "we are going to try to do everything we can to try to end this horrific crisis in Sudan".
“We will move forward with our international partners to reach an action plan, a concrete action plan about how we can advance to a cessation of violence and have full humanitarian access, and a monitoring enforcement mechanism. These are long past due,” Perriello said.
“We could do more together if SAF commits to arriving with a delegation that can make decisions. We would prefer that option, and we will mediate with the parties if they choose to do so,” he said, adding that the RSF had committed to participating if there is a commitment from SAF.
Previous rounds of negotiations in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, have failed. But the current ceasefire talks follow proximity talks mediated by the UN last month.
The UN-led "proximity format" talks between Sudan's warring parties took place in Geneva from July 11-19. The UN envoy to Sudan, Ramtane Lamamra, who led the negotiations with representatives of the SAF and RSF, held some 20 meetings with the delegations. During the talks, Lamamra met separately with the delegation of each party to the conflict.
This first round of peace talks in Geneva is expected to last up to 10 days. The negotiations could involve a combination of proximity talks, but at least some face-to-face mediated talks were expected.
Many observers consider Sudan to be the world's largest humanitarian crisis. The war has already created what the United Nations has called "the world's worst hunger crisis."
A recent food assessment found that 25.6 million people, or half the country's population, face acute hunger, and while 13 areas are at risk of famine, the IPC's Famine Review Committee has declared famine in the Zamzam camp near El Fasher in North Darfur.
A particularly critical issue likely to be discussed is the urgent need to protect and deliver aid to thousands of people trapped in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, a site of intense fighting between the SAF and RSF.
“The United States has been extremely clear from the beginning of the siege of El Fasher that the RSF needed to stand down from that siege,” Perriello said.
“We have spent four weeks trying to negotiate a local cease-fire for humanitarian access agreement between the parties and we will continue to be very focused on anything we can do to get relief to the affected people of El Fasher,” he said. Perriello added this is not the only acute crisis in Sudan - a crisis that “has not been sufficiently heard by the international community.”
“We will not be able to do in-person mediated talks with the parties if the parties are not there - even if only one party is not there,” he added.
At the United Nations on Sunday, Secretary-General AntĂłnio Guterres expressed deep concern about the unfolding situation in El Fasher, where fierce fighting between Sudan's rival military factions, has had devastating consequences for civilians.
“The fighting will further exacerbate humanitarian needs in and around El Fasher at a time when famine conditions have been confirmed in Zamzam camp south of El Fasher,” UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said on Monday.
Meanwhile, United Nations agencies warned Tuesday that Sudan is at a breaking point after more than 15 months of conflict because of what they call a crisis of neglect.
“Sudan’s humanitarian crisis for children is, by numbers, the biggest in the world. It is also a crisis of neglect,” James Elder, UNICEF spokesman said on Tuesday, adding, “This is not a forgotten crisis. This is known and this is, in many aspects, ignored.”
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) says the extent of the horrors and atrocities being inflicted on children in Sudan goes unnoticed because it is not reported. At the same time, it says crimes against children are being overlooked because aid agencies have very limited access to the country's hotspots.
Still, the UN agency says the news is trickling out, and it is not good.
Speaking from the capital, Khartoum, UNICEF spokesman Elder told journalists in Geneva that he has met people who have witnessed the suffering and violence that children are subjected to, who have seen children killed and wounded while playing soccer and doing the things that children do.
“Yesterday, in Khartoum, I spoke to a senior medical worker who gave an insight into the magnitude of sexual violence during this war. She explained she had direct contact with hundreds, hundreds of women and girls, some as young as 8 years old, who have been raped. Many have been held captive for weeks on end.
“Thousands of children have been killed or injured in Sudan’s war. Sexual violence and military recruitment are increasing,” he said.
More than 18,800 people have been killed and more than 33,000 injured since rival generals plunged the country into war in mid-April 2023, according to the United Nations.
Most of the Sudanese who have crossed borders have sought refuge in the seven countries surrounding the northeastern African nation. South Sudan has received the largest number of people from Sudan - more than 750,000 - many of them South Sudanese returning after many years. Chad has seen the largest influx of refugees in its history, with about 630,000 people crossing the border.
As of July 2024, more than 10.8 million women, men, and children have been internally displaced by conflict in the country - 2.8 million before April 2023 - making Sudan the largest internal displacement crisis in the world.
The total number of Sudanese refugees is estimated at more than 2.8 million, including those forced to flee before April 2023. In total, more than 13.5 million people have now been displaced by the conflict in Sudan, making it the worst displacement crisis in the world.
“The people of Sudan are facing one crisis after another, with no end in sight. Every day, and it seems like almost every hour, the situation in Sudan worsens,” said Mohamed Refaat, IOM Sudan chief of mission.
Speaking from his base in Port Sudan, he warned that heavy rains and flooding are creating new hardships for thousands of people already suffering from the ongoing conflict.
“Families are being uprooted; entire communities shattered. The floodwaters have turned homes into ruins, and the violence has turned neighborhoods into graveyards,” he said, adding that “hunger has reached catastrophic levels” on a scale not seen since the Darfur crisis in the early 2000s.
“Almost all people displaced across Sudan — 97 percent — are in areas with acute food insecurity or worse,” he said. “Over the next three months, an estimated 25.6 million people will face severe food insecurity as the conflict spreads and coping mechanisms are exhausted. One out of two are struggling to put food on the table every single day.”
More than half of the population is now facing acute hunger - including 755,000 people facing catastrophic conditions (IPC5), with hunger-related deaths already recorded.
8.5 million people are experiencing emergency levels of hunger (IPC4). People in emergency levels of hunger are also at risk of dying from hunger-related causes. The situation is worst in areas most impacted by fighting and where conflict-displaced people are concentrated.
730,000 children are estimated to suffer from severe acute malnutrition (SAM), the most life-threatening form of malnutrition, this year.
“Without action, tens of thousands of Sudanese children may die over the coming months,” UNICEF’s Elder warns. “And that is by no means a worst-case scenario. Any disease outbreak will see mortality skyrocket. Disease is our great fear.”
Under current living conditions, and with heavy rains and flooding, he said outbreaks of measles, diarrhea, respiratory infections and other diseases would spread like wildfire.
Aid agencies report they are seriously underfunded and do not have the money to scale up life-saving humanitarian operations to head off tens of thousands of preventable civilian deaths in the coming months.
The Sudan Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) is just 38 percent funded — having received $1 billion out of the $2.7 billion needed.
Elder contends there is a pragmatic as well as moral reason for the international community to support efforts to stave off this impending multi-pronged tragedy.
He notes it is much cheaper to fund a crisis before it reaches “those utterly catastrophic levels of food insecurity for children.”
“We know when there are famine declarations that the money pours in. We also know it is too late. Children are dying. If that famine does spread into some of those 13 areas at risk of famine, the money will flow,” he said, however, “the children will also be dead.”
Some information for this report provided by VOA.