Blinken urges Sudanese Army to join ceasefire talks in Switzerland

The Geneva talks, which the RSF has agreed to attend, would be the first major attempt in months to mediate between the two warring sides to end the 15-month-old war. AP Photo/Abdullah Moneim

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a call on Monday with Sudan's army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, reiterated the need for Sudan's military to participate in ceasefire talks this month in Switzerland, the State Department said.

Later, Burhan said in a statement on X that he discussed with Blinken the necessity of addressing the Sudanese government’s concerns before starting negotiations.

+Switzerland to host US-mediated peace talks on Sudan

In response to a recent invitation to attend U.S.-sponsored peace talks in Geneva, Sudan’s government said: “The government made clear that any negotiations before…full withdrawal and an end to expansion (by the he paramilitary Rapid Support Forces) will not be acceptable to the Sudanese people.”

However, the government requested meetings with U.S officials to discuss the agenda for the talks.

+Sudan: senior Red Cross official reflects on devastating year-long war

The Geneva talks, which the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has agreed to attend, would be the first major attempt in months to mediate between the two warring sides to end the 15-month-old war.

Translated from German by DeepL/amva

How we work

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to [e-mail].