‘No breakthrough yet’ in Sudan talks in Jeddah

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (AFP):

Ceasefire talks in Saudi Arabia between Sudan’s warring generals have yielded “no major progress” so far, a Saudi official told AFP, dampening hopes for a quick end to the fighting.

Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy turned rival Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who heads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), sent representatives to the Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah on Saturday for meetings that Washington and Riyadh have described as “pre-negotiation talks”.

Goals include reaching “an effective short-term halt” to the fighting, facilitating aid delivery, restoring basic services and setting “a timetable for expanded negotiations to reach a permanent cessation of hostilities”, the Saudi foreign ministry said in a statement Monday.

The two sides have “begun to discuss the security measures they should take in order to facilitate the delivery of urgent humanitarian aid and the restoration of essential services”, the statement said.

But a Saudi diplomat told AFP on Monday that “no major progress is achieved so far”.

“A permanent ceasefire isn’t on the table. Every side believes it is capable of winning the battle,” the diplomat added.

An official said on Monday that UN’s top humanitarian official Martin Griffiths had “asked to join the negotiations” but that his request had not been approved so far.