The warring parties in Sudan are more open to negotiations and have accepted that the conflict that erupted two weeks ago cannot continue, a United Nations official told Reuters today.

UN Special Envoy for Sudan Volker Perthes said both sides have appointed representatives to negotiate either in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia or Juba, South Sudan, although he said there was a practical question whether they could “actually (representatives) sit down together.”

However, he clarified that there is no schedule for their implementation.

The prospect of talks between the leaders of the two sides seemed remote so far.

The army commander and de facto leader of Sudan since the 2021 coup, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, said in an interview yesterday Friday that he would never sit next to the “rebellious” leader of the Rapid Support Force (RSF) paramilitary organization. , General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who said he would negotiate only after the military stopped fighting.

Hundreds of people have been killed since April 15, when a long-running power struggle between the military and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces escalated into conflict.

Perthes noted that he briefed the Security Council that both sides believe they can win the conflict, most recently at a briefing two days ago, but stressed that views are changing.

“Both sides believe that they will win, but they are both more open to negotiations, the word “negotiations” or “negotiations” was not in their conversation in the first week,” he said.

While both made statements that the other side must “surrender or die,” Perthes said, they also said, “OK, we’re accepting…negotiations in one form or another.”

“They both acknowledged that this war cannot continue,” he added.

While the military carries out daily airstrikes and claims to retain control of vital installations, locals say the RSF has a strong presence on the ground in Khartoum.

During the fighting between the two forces, electricity, water and telecommunications infrastructure was damaged and businesses and homes were looted. Tens of thousands of Sudanese have fled the conflict, either to other cities in the country or to neighboring countries.

What needs to be done immediately, Perthes suggested, is to develop a ceasefire monitoring mechanism that has been negotiated several times but failed to stop the conflict.

Jeddah has been proposed as a venue for “military-technical” talks, and Juba has been proposed as part of the East African states’ regional proposal for political talks.

Source: APE-MPE, Reuters.