US envoy sees no ‘political appetite’ among Sudan’s combatants to end the country’s devastating war
ROME — The US Special Envoy for Sudan said Thursday, just days after his first visit to the war-ravaged country since taking office, that he does not see enough “political appetite” among the warring parties to find a solution to the conflict.
The African nation became embroiled in conflict in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between military and paramilitary leaders erupted in the capital Khartoum and spread to other regions, including West Darfur.
The fighting has left tens of thousands dead, driven millions from their homes and pushed much of the population into famine.
Tom Perriello, who was appointed special envoy in February, traveled to Port Sudan on Monday to meet with Sudanese officials, including the head of the army, General Abdel Fattah Burhan, whose troops have been fighting across the country against the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. during the past 19 months.
Several attempts to broker a ceasefire have failedmost recently in August, when the The Sudanese military refused to attend US-mediated talks in Geneva. Since then, fighting has only increased and RSF forces have been accused by the United Nations of committing atrocities, including killings of civilians and rapes in several parts of the country.
“We do not yet see enough political willingness among the parties to find a real solution to this conflict,” Perriello said in an interview with The Associated Press in Rome. He said any solution “must be about returning control to the people.”
Sudan attempted to establish a civilian government after a popular uprising forced the removal of the longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019. The short-lived transition to democracy was derailed when Burhan and General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, commander of the RSF, joined forces to carry out a military takeover in 2021.
But Burhan and Dagalo soon fell out, and their long-simmering battle for control culminated in battles in Khartoum in April 2023 and spread to other parts of the country.
Since then, more than 20,000 people have have died in the conflictaccording to the UN. About 14 million people — 30% of the population – have been forcibly displaced, to other parts of the country or abroad, in what the UN says is one of the worst displacement crises in the world.
The UN recently warned that the country has done so brought to the brink of famineand more than 26.5 million people suffer from acute hunger.
“The numbers are so big that you can’t even begin to understand the magnitude of human suffering,” Perriello said. He denounced the situation where the warring sides continue to commit atrocities while civilians are trapped in the chaos.
“What we know is that the numbers are astronomical,” Perriello notes, “the death toll is probably higher than anything ever estimated.”
He pointed to reported atrocities committed last month by RSF fighters in Gezira state, southeast of Khartoum. “These are horrific, horrific abuses against women and children, in this case mainly committed by the Rapid Support Forces, and multiple attacks on civilians, killing civilians,” he said.
During his visit, Perriello met with members of Sudanese civil society and humanitarian workers in an effort to improve the flow of food and medicine to people across the country.
He said the United States is working to stop countries that do so arming the warring parties despite a UN arms embargo.
Sudan’s ruling Sovereign Council, led by Burhan, accuses the United Arab Emirates, a US ally, of arming the RSF – an accusation that a UN panel of experts said was credible, although the UAE denies it. The RSF has also reportedly received support from Russia’s Wagner mercenary group.
“We won’t have specific conversations, but the United States has been very clear to countries around the world that we believe it is time to stop fueling this war with more weapons,” Perriello said.
Burhan has received Russian support and is a close ally of neighboring Egypt and its president, former army chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. In February, Sudan’s foreign minister held talks in Tehran with his Iranian counterpart, amid unconfirmed reports of the purchase of drones for government forces.
“We have far too many countries pouring weapons into Sudan, which should be pouring in food and medicine,” Perriello said. “We have far too many countries deciding to get involved, not in the interest of the Sudanese people, but to take advantage of the state’s vulnerability.”
Perriello, who has worked on crises in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan and Sierra Leone, said he had never been involved a disaster of such enormous proportions that receives so little attention from the rest of the world.