The United States is “cautiously optimistic” that there will be an agreement to allow humanitarian aid to get into Sudan, a top State Department official said Wednesday amid ongoing talks between the warring Sudanese military factions.
However, the US is also prepared to apply economic pressure to the parties “depending upon how the talks go,” and “there are” sanctions ready to go, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland said at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing Wednesday.
Intense fighting between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) has left hundreds dead and thousands injured, caused tens of thousands to flee their homes and has left the country on the brink of a civil war and a massive humanitarian catastrophe. Several ceasefires between the parties have not yielded an end to the fighting.
Weeks after the fighting broke out, the leaders of the RSF and SAF agreed to send representatives to the Saudi city of Jeddah for “pre-negotiation talks” mediated by the US and Saudi Arabia.
“Our goal for these talks has been very narrowly focused. First securing agreement on a declaration of humanitarian principles and then getting a ceasefire that is long enough to facilitate the steady delivery of badly needed services,” Nuland said.
Nuland told lawmakers she had spoken with the US negotiators, led by US Ambassador to Sudan John Godfrey and Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Molly Phee, and described them as “cautiously optimistic” that the initial stage of talks would be successful.
“We can’t get anything done in Sudan, we can’t even restore a process in which civilians are participating until the violence stops and we get some aid in,” she said.
“We’re, as I said, cautiously optimistic that this first installment on getting…
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