Cease-fire talks in Sudan brokered by the United States and Saudi Arabia have failed to end the country's 16-month conflict, but have succeeded in securing greater humanitarian access to millions of people who have been deprived of food, medicine, and other essential aid for many months. However, the absence of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) from the talks has hampered progress towards a ceasefire.
At the conclusion of a first round of ceasefire negotiations in Geneva on Friday, Tom Perriello, the US Special Envoy for Sudan, told journalists "it is extremely important that we have found breakthroughs on humanitarian access for millions and millions of people in Sudan."
The war has left more than half of Sudan's population - some 25 million people - in need of humanitarian assistance and protection. Among those in need are more than 14 million children.
"But this is just the beginning," Perriello said. "We need to see the results from the parties, whether that is on protection of civilians or humanitarian access, and we need to continue to build where we can."
Over the past ten days, representatives from the United States, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, the United Nations, the African Union (AU), Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have focused on reopening three humanitarian corridors - the western border crossing in Darfur at Adre, the northern Dabar road from Port Sudan, and the southern access route through Sennar State.
Perriello said the three routes combined "would open up food, medicine and lifesaving services for 20 million people in Sudan," adding that negotiators got commitments from the two warring parties, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces to send aid through both the Adre and Dabar routes.
"We are in active negotiations with the parties on multiple potential routes for Sennar, which would open up another 11 million with access," he said.
Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told journalists that United Nations and humanitarian partners continue to engage with the Sudanese authorities to ensure the sustained and scaled-up delivery of supplies into Sudan.
"This is crucial to meet people's most urgent needs at the height of the rainy and lean seasons in Darfur," he said, adding that the 15 trucks that crossed into Sudan from Chad via the Adre crossing this week "were a step in the right direction."
The first aid trucks targeting desperate communities crossed the Adre border from Chad this week after Sudanese authorities reopened the crossing after a six-month closure.
"But the fighting and deepening hunger crisis in Sudan means there has to be a steady flow of food, nutrition, water, sanitation, hygiene and medical supplies for people at risk of famine in more than a dozen areas," Laerke said.
A recent food assessment found that 25.6 million people, or half the country's population, face acute hunger, and while 13 areas are at risk of famine, the IPC's Famine Review Committee has declared famine in the Zamzam camp near El Fasher in North Darfur. The 14 areas either in famine or at risk of famine are mostly located in Darfur, Kordofan, Khartoum, and Al-Jazira.
The RSF sent a delegation to the talks. However, the Sudanese military stayed away because of the participation of the United Arab Emirates, which it accuses of supporting the RSF and fueling the war by sending arms to the paramilitary group.
The war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces is being fought with a new level of violence and brutality against civilians, especially in the states of Darfur. The RSF in particular has been accused of committing mass atrocities in Darfur. However, both parties to the conflict have been accused of serious war crimes.
The UAE has supplied arms to the Rapid Support Forces in the past and continues to do so, according to media reports, human rights groups, and UN-appointed experts. There are credible allegations against the Arabian Peninsula country of supplying arms and ammunition to the RSF.
While not responding to these allegations, Lana Nusseibeh, head of the UAE delegation, said that the position of her country has been clear.
"We see the future of Sudan as one that requires a peaceful civilian transition of power. We are dedicated and committed to engage in these talks and use all our efforts to bring about the cease-fire that the Sudanese people so desperately need and so desperately deserve," she said.
While acknowledging the difficulties of negotiating a cease-fire with only one of the warring parties present, US mediator Perriello said progress has been made in other areas because "we were able to engage with the SAF many, many times a day virtually by phone."
The Geneva talks also focused on implementing the Jeddah Declaration, which calls for the protection of civilians and respect for international humanitarian law, even in wartime. Both warring parties signed the agreement on May 11, 2023, but a week later violated a follow-up agreement that called for a seven-day cease-fire.
"We have all seen the horrific atrocities of rape, sexual slavery, starvation used as a weapon of war, shelling, bombing and daily terrors that are realities of the Sudanese people," Perriello said, underscoring the importance of complying with the Jeddah Declaration.
He said the delegations have worked hard to come up with a compliance mechanism that can work for the existing Jeddah Declaration and have presented it to the parties for consideration.
"We got agreement from the Rapid Support Forces for a code of conduct that will be issued to their soldiers," in the interim, he said.
"It will have many of the basics of international humanitarian law, including protections of women and protections related to farming and the harvest, so we can look at the issues not only of the current famine, but how we begin to help the Sudanese grow out of this."
The US envoy said no formal date has been set for the next round of peace or cease-fire talks because "the urgency of this crisis is one in which we do not want to [be] constrained by the formal dates of when we can get on airplanes."
"We know that there are decisions today that are going to be the difference between whether we start to see hundreds of trucks go across Adre or whether the brakes are thrown on. That is a today thing and that is a tomorrow thing," Perriello said.
"We are very committed to seeing this as a 24/7 operation in the face of a famine that the world has largely ignored."
Sudan's civil war between the SAF and RSF, which began on April 15 last year, has killed and injured tens of thousands of people, resulted in widespread atrocities, and caused massive displacement. Many observers consider Sudan to be the world's largest humanitarian crisis. The war has also created what the United Nations has called the world's worst hunger crisis.
Sixteen months into the armed conflict between the SAF and the RSF, millions of people lack access to basic services such as food, water, and health care. Nearly a quarter of the country's population has fled their homes and lost their livelihoods, while months of fighting have taken a heavy toll on civilian infrastructure.
Since the start of the war, more than 10.5 million people - including more than 5 million children - have been displaced by the ongoing conflict. While nearly 8.2 million people - Sudanese and refugees already living in the country - have been forced to flee within Sudan, more than 2.3 million women, men and children have sought refuge in other countries.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly 15 million people need urgent health assistance to survive. Less than 25 percent of health facilities are functioning in the Sudanese states most affected by the war, and only 45 percent of such facilities are fully functional in other states.
Meanwhile, disease outbreaks are worsening and spreading.
OCHA said on Friday it was deeply concerned about the worsening cholera outbreak in Sudan, where flooding is increasing the risk that the disease will spread further. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said it is particularly concerned about the spread of the disease in areas hosting refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs), mainly in Kassala, Gedaref and Al-Jazira states.
The catastrophic humanitarian situation in Sudan hardly receives the international political and media attention it deserves. The lives of millions of people in Sudan are at risk as the world looks away from the enormous humanitarian needs facing the war-torn country.
As of today, this year's Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) for Sudan is severely underfunded at 38 percent, with only $1 billion of the required $2.7 billion pledged so far.
Some information for this report provided by VOA.