GENEVA (AP) 鈥 Sudan鈥檚 warring parties have arrived in Geneva at the invitation of the United Nations to discuss the protection of civilians through possible local cease-fires, U.N. officials said Thursday. But one side did not show up for the talks on the first day.
Senior representatives from the Sudanese army and rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces accepted invitations to meet separately with the U.N. secretary-general鈥檚 personal envoy, Ramtane Lamamra, Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman at U.N. headquarters in New York, told reporters.
Lamamra invited both parties to separate 鈥減roximity talks鈥 on Thursday morning but 鈥渞egrettably one of the delegations did not come to the session,鈥 he said.
Dujarric would not say which delegation showed up, but he said Lamamra and his team met with those representatives, and invited both delegations to continue discussions on Friday.
鈥淲e urge the Sudanese delegations to rise to the challenge and engage in constructive discussions with the personal envoy for the sake of the Sudanese people,鈥 he said.
Sudan plunged into conflict in mid-April 2023 when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary leaders broke out in the capital, Khartoum, and including Darfur. The U.N. says over 14,000 people have been killed and 33,000 injured. Rights activists say the toll could be much higher.
The war has also created the world鈥檚 largest with over 11 million people forced to flee their homes as well as allegations of rampant sexual violence and possible crimes against humanity, and international experts recently warned that 755,000 people are facing famine in the coming months.
Talks in Saudi Arabia鈥檚 port city of Jeddah between the Sudanese military and the Rapid Support Forces broke down at the end of last year.
After months of failed efforts to restart talks, Dujarric said the United Nations didn鈥檛 publicize the meeting because it doesn鈥檛 want to raise expectations.
鈥淲e and others have been trying to move this process forward,鈥 he said. 鈥淲e need to give it a little bit of breathing room and that鈥檚 why we鈥檙e not trumpeting all of this.鈥
Alessandra Vellucci, the U.N. spokeswoman in Geneva, said in an email that 鈥淭he discussions seek to identify avenues for the advancement of the identified humanitarian and protection of civilian measures through possible local ceasefires, as requested by the Security Council.鈥
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Lederer reported from the United Nations
