NNA – The US announced Sudan’s two warring factions had agreed to a three-day ceasefire and raised the prospect of peace talks, even as the two sides showed little appetite for negotiations to end fighting that’s killed hundreds of people.
The leaders of the Sudanese Armed Forces and the rival Rapid Support Forces agreed to halt the fighting starting at midnight in Sudan — 6 p.m. Monday on the US East Coast — after “intense negotiation” over the last two days, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
Blinken also raised the possibility of negotiations to end clashes that broke out April 15 and has left more than 420 people dead. The US is working with international partners and Sudanese groups to create a committee “to oversee the negotiation, conclusion, and implementation of a permanent cessation of hostilities,” he said.
Yet the leaders of Sudan’s army and the RSF paramilitary battling for control of Sudan have so far resisted renewed diplomatic efforts to bring them to the negotiating table. While officials continue to call on army leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Rapid Support Forces head Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo to put an end to the hostilities, neither of them is ready, according to two senior diplomats briefed on the matter.
Foreign governments are increasingly looking to the African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, a regional bloc, to lead mediation efforts as they may be able to bring the pressure of countries in the region to bear on the two men, the diplomats said.–Bloomberg
===========R.H.