As Sudan Suffering Worsens, U.S. Invites Belligerents to Talks

As starvation and desperation in Sudan continues to escalate after a year of conflict, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has asked the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to participate in ceasefire talks in August mediated by the United States."The talks in Switzerland aim to reach a nationwide cessation of violence, enabling humanitarian access to all those in need, and develop a robust monitoring and verification mechanism to ensure implementation of any agreement, Blinken said in a statement released on Tuesday.

AllAfrica's peacebuilding reporting, featured on AllAfrica and freely available to online, print and broadcast media, is supported by funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, a philanthropic organization.An element of AllAfrica's peacebuilding initiative is organizing interactions among peace and security scholars, non-governmental organizations, policy makers and print and broadcast journalists across Africa.

Sudan is classified by aid agencies as the largest hunger and displacement crisis in the world. "The scale of death, suffering, and destruction in Sudan is devastating," Blinken said. Reports from Sudanese medical professionals still inside the tattered country say the health system has collapsed, compounding the crisis

Activists and analysts advocating for a durable peace are critical of the strategies of U.S. and other mediators. "The danger," Kholood Khair, founding director of a Sudan-based analytical organization, said from London on a panel organized by the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, "is that if they strike a deal with each other, they will turbo-charge their repressive acts against the Sudanese people".

The African Union is spearheading consultations among Sudanese political and civil organizations to propose solutions to bring an end to the conflict, open access for humanitarian assistance and promote transition to civilian rule.