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The leader of one of Sudan’s two warring factions has accepted an invitation by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to participate in peace talks aimed at ending the country’s devastating 15-month-old conflict.
Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, leader of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, released a statement late Tuesday accepting Blinken’s invitation to participate in talks to be held next month in Switzerland.
So far, there has been no word from the Sudanese Armed Forces, the other warring faction, on whether it will attend the peace talks.
Blinken said in a statement issued Tuesday that Saudi Arabia will co-host the talks when they begin August 14, with representatives from the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, the African Union and the United Nations attending as observers
Sudan has been mired in civil war since April 2023, when fighting broke out between the Sudanese military and the Rapid Support Forces after months of rising tensions over the country’s political future and plans to integrate the RSF into the national army.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict and more than 10 million Sudanese have been displaced from their homes. Many have fled into Chad and other neighboring countries.
“The scale of death, suffering, and destruction in Sudan is devastating. This senseless conflict must end,” Blinken said in the statement.
The clashes are part of a power struggle between Army General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who also heads Sudan’s governing transitional council, and Dagalo, the deputy head of the transitional council. The two generals joined forces in October 2021 to overthrow the transitional government formed after the 2019 ouster of longtime autocratic leader Omar al-Bashir.
The restructuring of the military was part of an effort to restore the country to civilian rule and end the political crisis.
The two sides engaged in indirect talks in Geneva last week mediated by Ramtane Lamamra, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Gueterres’s personal envoy for Sudan. Lamamra described the talks, which were focused on measures to protect civilians and ensure the distribution of humanitarian aid, as “encouraging.”
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.