Peace is up to rival factions’ cheerleaders
An international security watchdog says the powers backing Sudan’s warring sides must broker a truce.
Kiri Rupiah
After nearly two years of wartime atrocities by both the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the genocidal Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the solutions to Sudan’s war may lie outside it, says a new report by the International Crisis Group.
It calls on Türkiye, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia and the United States, to “lean on the parties to come back to the table and agree to a ceasefire”. Both Egypt and the UAE stand accused of enabling and supporting one side or the other in the war.
The UAE has repeatedly been accused of arming the RSF, which it denies. But it nevertheless reassured US senators in December that it would not do so in future. Egypt backs the SAF as the legitimate governors of the country, even though it has lost control over much of it to the RSF. Türkiye has offered to mediate talks. Saudi Arabia and the US have already led attempts at peace talks that went nowhere.
According to a recent report by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, during the first 14 months of fighting at least 61,000 people died in Khartoum state alone.
The SAF, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, frequently bombards civilian areas from the air and has reportedly used chemical weapons. Local activists, the UN and the US say that the RSF, led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, has committed genocide in Darfur – again.

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Neither side has the popular support to become a legitimate government, even if it were to win on the battlefield. None of them will simply give up their ambitions either. Peacemakers may have to offer some sort of power split between civilians and the military, and between SAF and RSF.