It’s been almost a year since fighting broke out in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces, the SAF, and the militia group known as the Rapid Support Forces, the RSF, plunging Sudan into conditions observers describe as “hell on earth.”
Eighteen million Sudanese face acute hunger, and famine is looming. Nearly eight million people have been forced from their homes. In December, Secretary of State Antony Blinken determined that members of the SAF and the RSF have committed war crimes. He also determined that members of the RSF and their allied militia have committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing in Darfur.
U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello recently traveled to Africa and the Middle East, speaking to leaders and to members of the Sudanese community about the tragedy unfolding in Sudan and the urgent need to relaunch formal peace talks:
“We are seeing signs of famine already across the country of Sudan. We have known about horrific atrocities, particularly against women and children, forced recruitment, even slavery in this conflict that must end. And now we’re seeing a situation as we head into the rainy season that could quickly get much worse, and the humanitarian crisis is already at a breaking point.”
Special Envoy Perriello said, “The only true solution here is to silence the guns.” That he said, requires the two competing generals, the SAF’s army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF head Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, to reach a deal and for all across the region “to be partners in peace.”
“We need to restart formal talks. We hope that will happen as soon as Ramadan is over, that those are inclusive talks of key regional actors as well as key voices from the inside, and that we can reach that agreement not just to end the violence, but to really open up to full humanitarian access,” he said.
Special Envoy Perriello said his visit to the region revealed a new sense of urgency about Sudan: “Everybody understands that this crisis is barreling toward a point of no return. And that means everybody needs to put whatever differences aside and be united in finding a solution to this conflict.” A solution, Special Envoy Perriello declared, that leads to “a Sudan where the Sudanese people get to determine their future.”
