US ‘increasingly frustrated’ on Sudan mediation

AFP | Washington   

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

The US is increasingly frustrated with Sudan’s warring generals and will decide in the coming days with its partners how to proceed on mediation, officials said yesterday.

“We think we’ve given them every shot,” a senior State Department official said on condition of anonymity. The US, which has led negotiations with the Saudis in their port city of Jeddah, has offered to the generals “a way forward that doesn’t involve achieving an outcome that’s based on violence or military dominance.”

“They are clearly not taking advantage of the format that we’ve given them,” the official told reporters. The United States is consulting with Saudi Arabia and other Arab and African states about the “next way forward.”

“I think we’ll come forward with a recommended approach in the next few days.” The US and Saudi Arabia had already warned on Saturday that they could suspend mediation efforts after the collapse of multiple ceasefires. Violence erupted in mid-April between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which refused to integrate as part of a plan to transition to civilian rule.

“I think a real question that we’re facing is how much more mileage do we think you might get out of Jeddah on that step-by-step approach?” another US official said. More than 1,800 people have been killed and nearly two million displaced by the fighting, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.

Saudi Arabia yesterday also announced an international conference next week to gather aid pledges for Sudan. The US has employed sanctions and other tactics to pressure Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy turned rival Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.