April 16, 2025
Agencies – Darfur 24
A British attempt to establish a contact group to facilitate ceasefire talks in Sudan collapsed on Tuesday when Arab countries refused to sign a joint statement after a conference in London, according to the British newspaper The Guardian.
The day-long dispute between Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE over the joint statement represented a major diplomatic setback to efforts to end the two-year-old civil war in Sudan.
The British Foreign Office said it regretted the lack of agreement on a political path forward, but confirmed that progress had been made.
British Foreign Secretary David Lamy and his counterparts from France, Germany, the African Union, and the European Union issued a joint statement by the co-chairs, in the absence of a final communique. They pledged to support “efforts to find a peaceful solution and to reject all activities, including external interference, that escalate tensions, prolong, or enable the fighting.” The statement also called for a solution that does not divide Sudan.
Lamy opened the conference with great hope, saying, “Too many have abandoned Sudan, and this is wrong. It is a moral error when we see so many civilians being beheaded, children as young as one year old being subjected to sexual violence, and more people facing famine than anywhere else in the world. We simply cannot turn a blind eye. As I speak, civilians and aid workers in El Fasher and Zamzam camp for internally displaced persons are facing unimaginable violence.”
He added, “The biggest obstacle is not a lack of funding or texts at the UN, but a lack of political will. We must persuade the warring parties to protect civilians, allow aid into the country, and prioritize peace above all else.”
However, his efforts to persuade Arab countries to agree on a set of diplomatic principles for a future contact group were fruitless.
Officials had made clear that the conference was neither a mediation nor a platform for financial pledges, but rather aimed to foster political consensus on Sudan’s future among countries claiming a role in the Sudanese issue.
Indicating the expanding, complex, and externally driven nature of the war, Lamy chose not to invite any of the main Sudanese parties or representatives of civil society. The conference’s objectives were modestly defined as seeking consensus on an African Union-led international contact group and renewing commitments to ending restrictions on humanitarian aid.
The war, which erupted in April 2023, stemmed from a power struggle between the military, led by Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces, led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti.
The goal of establishing the contact group was to persuade Middle Eastern countries to focus on diplomacy rather than supporting the warring parties. However, officials faced difficulties from the outset in finding a neutral formula for Sudan’s future that Egypt and the UAE could accept.
Sudan and others have accused the UAE of arming the Rapid Support Forces (RSF)—a charge the UAE strongly denies—while Egypt has maintained close ties with the Sudanese military.
The Sudanese government criticized the conference organizers for excluding it from the meeting while the UAE was invited.
UAE Minister of State for Political Affairs Lana Nusseibeh, who attended the conference, said both sides were committing atrocities. She condemned recent attacks by the RSF on displacement camps and called for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, an end to the unacceptable obstruction of humanitarian aid, and a transition to an independent civilian government.
Both sides have been accused of committing horrific crimes during the war, which has killed tens of thousands, displaced 13 million people, and pushed large parts of the country toward famine.
In a separate event Tuesday morning, aid and human rights organizations called on the international community to sanction countries directly or indirectly involved in sending weapons to the warring parties, in violation of the UN arms embargo.
Yasmine Ahmed, UK director at Human Rights Watch, said: “The international community would be a complete failure if we held a conference today with parties involved in the conflict and nothing came of it again. We need a coalition of countries, led by the UK and the host countries, to make it clear: We are building the political momentum needed to protect civilians on the ground. It must be clear that this cannot continue. The international community cannot turn a blind eye to another genocide. It has international obligations to protect civilians and respect international law.” “This conference is a test of what kind of secretary of state Lammy will be in a world riven by chaos, crisis, and violence, where American leadership is absent,” said Kate Ferguson, co-director of Protection Approaches, ahead of the conference. “Lammy needs to be unequivocal about his position.”
However, neither side appears interested in discussing peace, and some fear the country is heading toward some sort of partition, based on current areas of control.
The meeting comes amid a scaling back of the United States’ aid program. Kate Phillips-Barrasso, vice president of global policy at the humanitarian organization Mercy Corps, said the nature of the US cuts makes it difficult to determine their impact on Sudan, but in her organization’s case, a lifeline serving 220,000 people has been cut.