The leader of a Sudanese paramilitary force battling the country’s army for the nation’s control on Wednesday welcomed A US invitation to peace talks co-hosted by Saudi Arabia and Switzerland that are expected to begin on August 14.
Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, commander of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), said on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that his group would participate in the talks in Switzerland.
“We share with the international community the goal of achieving a comprehensive ceasefire across the country, facilitating humanitarian access to all those in need, and developing a robust monitoring and verification mechanism to ensure the implementation of any agreement reached,” he said.
“The extent and scale of suffering and destruction in our country is immense, and we reaffirm our firm stance, as stated in the statement by the U.S. Secretary of State today, which is the insistence on saving lives, stopping the fighting, and paving the way for a peaceful, negotiated political solution that restores the country to civilian rule and the path of democratic transition,” he added.
The US State Department said representatives from the African Union, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Nations would attend the talks.
“The talks in Switzerland aim to reach a nationwide cessation of violence, enabling humanitarian access to all those in need, and develop a robust monitoring and verification mechanism to ensure implementation of any agreement,” it said in a statement.
“These talks do not aim to address broader political issues. As the Sudanese people have long demanded, Sudan’s governance must return to civilians and civilians must play the leading role in defining a process to address political issues and restore Sudan’s democratic transition,” the US State Department added.
It is not clear yet whether the ruling Transitional Sovereignty Council (TSC) would send delegates to the talks.
Similar talks in the past in the Saudi city of Jeddah bore no fruit.
Sudan has been gripped by a devastating conflict between the TSC-allied army and the RSF since April 2023.
According to estimates by the United Nations, the war had left 12,000 civilians dead and nearly half of Sudan’s 49 million people needing humanitarian assistance by the end of 2023.
The actual death toll is believed to be much higher.