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WASHINGTON – Representatives of two warring Sudanese generals are expected to meet in Saudi Arabia on Saturday to discuss the terms of a ceasefire and mechanisms to allow humanitarian aid into the country, US, Saudi and Sudanese officials said on Friday.
The US State Department and the Saudi Foreign Minister have helped organize the meeting, which will take place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on the Red Sea across from Sudan. The Saudi government has operated an evacuation boat between Jeddah and Port Sudan.
The two generals had agreed to a cease-fire in recent days, but their forces have violated it.
The Sudanese army confirmed in a post on Facebook that the delegation went to Jeddah on Friday evening to discuss “the specific details of the ceasefire,” which aims to “secure and create suitable conditions to address the humanitarian situation of our citizens.”
A senior State Department official said the talks in Jeddah would not include negotiations on the volatile issue of the integration of the armed forces and the chain of command that led to the start of fighting on April 15 between General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who controls the region. The Sudanese military, and Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, who heads the paramilitary Rapid Support Force.
African officials are expected to organize the talks whenever they start, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss delicate diplomacy. Two African institutions, the African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development in East Africa, will take a leading role in the process.
Since the conflict began, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and other State Department officials have spoken directly with the generals and tried to coordinate efforts with a partnership of countries that have influence in Sudan called the Quad. They are the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.
The State Department said on Friday that Mr Blinken had spoken to Prince Faisal bin Farhan, the Saudi foreign minister, about the fighting in Sudan. Mr. Blinken thanked Saudi Arabia for helping American citizens from Sudan to Jeddah, and the two diplomats “reaffirmed their countries’ intensive collaboration in diplomatic work to end the fighting in Sudan,” the State Department said in a telephone summary.
Fighting in Sudan has left at least 550 people dead and more than 334,000 displaced, according to Sudanese government and United Nations statistics. The actual death toll is almost certainly higher.
Sudanese civilians and officials have been working with the United States and other foreign powers to try to move the country from military rule to civilian rule, with democratic elections, since mass protests in 2019 led to the ouster of President Omar. Hassan al-Bashir, dictator for 30 years.
However, in October 2021, General al-Burhan and General Hamdan staged a coup, disrupting the transition process. Officials from the United States and other countries are working on a new agreement with the generals to restore the process, and diplomats thought last week that the generals were ready to accept the pact, but they have since argued over how to put it together. force, including through the timeline.
The chain of command was also a problem: General Hamdan wanted to report directly to the civilian leadership, while General al-Burhan wanted General Hamdan to report to him.
One of the last plans discussed before war broke out was a proposal that the two generals retain operational control of their own forces, and sit on an integration committee with the new civilian head of state, State Department officials said.
If the generals agree to allow safe assistance to enter Sudan, most or all of the assistance will soon be sent by ship to Port Sudan, and then transported by land to Khartoum, the capital and other places. The United States will cooperate with the United Nations on this process, State Department officials said.
Critics say the Biden administration should try to punish the two generals after the 2021 coup instead of cooperating with them. US officials say they and their partners are withholding economic aid and debt relief from the Sudanese government, and believe they will push the generals to support the transition to civilian rule and democracy.
Edward Wong reported from Washington, and Abdi Latif Dahir from Nairobi, Kenya.
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