Egypt to host summit on Sudan conflict with neighboring countries

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
9 Jul 2023 21:12

The war has already claimed the lives of approximately 3,000 individuals, with survivors reporting incidents of sexual violence and witnesses recounting ethnically targeted killings.

Smoke rises from buildings in Sudan’s capital on April 17, 2023 (AFP)

Egypt has announced that it will host a summit on July 13 to address the 12-week-long clashes between rival Sudanese military factions, which has resulted in a major humanitarian crisis.

Previous diplomatic efforts to halt the fighting between Sudan's army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been unsuccessful, leading to confusion about how to bring the warring parties to the negotiating table.

The upcoming summit aims to develop effective mechanisms in collaboration with neighboring states to achieve a peaceful settlement. In the meantime, Sudanese delegations, including representatives from civilian parties that shared power with the army and RSF, are expected to hold exploratory talks in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

It is worth noting that the leaders of former rebel groups from Darfur, who signed a partial peace deal in 2020, are also anticipated to engage in talks in Chad.

Earlier today, the United Nations warned that Sudan is on the edge of a "full-scale civil war" that poses a threat to regional stability, following an airstrike that claimed the lives of approximately two dozen civilians in a residential area.

According to Sudan's Ministry of Health, the airstrike targeted Omdurman, a city bordering Khartoum, specifically the district of Dar Al-Salam, resulting in the deaths of 22 civilians and causing numerous injuries.

This latest incident has fueled outrage amid the ongoing conflict between Sudan's rival generals, which has spanned nearly three months.

The disturbing footage shared by the Health Ministry on Facebook revealed dismembered bodies strewn across the ground, some partially covered, with women among the victims.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) claimed that the airstrikes resulted in 31 fatalities.

The war has already claimed the lives of approximately 3,000 individuals, with survivors reporting incidents of sexual violence and witnesses recounting ethnically targeted killings. Widespread looting has also been reported, prompting the UN to issue warnings of potential crimes against humanity in the Darfur region.

It was reported earlier this week that the conflict in Sudan has displaced some three million people out of their homes in less than three months, the United Nations International Organization for Migration reported.

With more than 2.2 million internally displaced Sudanese people and nearly 700,000 others who had to flee the country as a whole, the latest figures obtained by the IOM through its Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) revealed that the conflict displaced close to three million people.

The IOM revealed that the majority of the people were displaced from Khartoum (67%) and Darfur (33%) toward Northern State (16%), the River Nile (14%), West Darfur (7%), and White Nile states.

The agency underlined that access to health services and essential relief items is critically low, and though the majority of those internally displaced live with the community hosting them, an overwhelming 280,000 of them currently live in last-resort shelters such as camps, public buildings, and improvised shelters.

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