The United States has invited Al Burhan’s SAF and Rapid Support Forces for US-mediated ceasefire talks starting on Aug. 14 in Switzerland, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday.
The talks will include the African Union, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and the United Nations as observers, Blinken said in a statement. Saudi Arabia will be a co-host for the discussions, he added.
“The scale of death, suffering, and destruction in Sudan is devastating.
This senseless conflict must end,” Blinken said, calling on Al Burhan’s army and RSF to attend the talks and approach them constructively.
The war in Sudan, which erupted in April 2023, has forced almost 10 million people from their homes, sparked warnings of famine and waves of ethnically-driven violence.
Talks in Jeddah between Al Burhan’s army and RSF that were sponsored by the United States and Saudi Arabia broke down at the end of last year.
Last week’s Geneva talks were initially boycott by General al-Burhan at the start, with only the RSF delegation showing up in Geneva on July 11th.
Due to immense political and public backlash al-Burhan hastily sent a delegation to Geneva last week and did participate in the talks.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters on Tuesday that the goal of the talks in Switzerland was to build on work from Jeddah and try to move the talks to the next phase.
“We just want to get the parties back to the table, and what we determined is that bringing the parties, the three host nations and the observers together is the best shot that we have right now at getting the nationwide cessation of violence,” Miller said.
