“The scale of suffering in Sudan truly shocks the conscience,” said U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan, Tom Perriello in a recent briefing. While there is some “rare, good news in terms of developments out of our recent initiatives ... the overall story continues to be one of over 25 million people facing forms of acute hunger, a million at levels of starvation, [and] 10 million being ... forced to flee from their homes.”
Given the scale of the suffering and the paralysis diplomatically, Special Envoy Perriello met with key countries in the region and multilateral organizations, in Switzerland recently to push for breakthroughs across three areas: humanitarian access, protection of civilians, and cessation of hostilities.
The meetings did produce some very significant breakthroughs, said Mr. Perriello:
“We were able to get agreement on the opening of the Adré border, to get agreements from the RSF [Rapid Support Forces] and SAF [Sudan Armed Forces] to guarantee access along those routes; similarly, to get pledges of guarantees of access across the Dabbah Road coming east from Port Sudan. Both of those remain active and open, now with dozens of trucks crossing and nearly 6 million pounds of food and emergency relief reaching areas in need.”
“On the issue of civilian protection,” said Special Envoy Perriello, “we were able to get a commitment to a code of conduct by the Rapid Support Forces with a deadline by the end of the month of being able to put that out publicly to all those fighting under their auspices.”
With regard to the cessation of hostilities, there is a lack of political will at this time for the parties to stop fighting. “[A]nd on that we have two responses,” reported Mr. Perriello:
“First is the importance of understanding even in times of war that international humanitarian law and protection of civilians must be respected; and second, we have to find a way to get the parties together to find an end to this war that is leading to the suffering of millions inside Sudan as well as spilling over increasingly into the neighboring countries.”
Bringing an end to this war is essential, said Special Envoy Perriello. The people want to return to the values and the aspirations of the 2019 revolution of an inclusive, democratic Sudan in which the people are able to determine their own future.
