Sudan’s humanitarian truces fail as rival forces pursue battlefield gains
US-led efforts to secure aid pauses have repeatedly broken down as fighting spreads and mediation loses traction.
Efforts to establish humanitarian truces in Sudan are continuing to fail, with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) prioritising battlefield gains over temporary pauses to allow aid deliveries.
The United States has reportedly renewed calls for a 90-day humanitarian truce and emergency aid access. US Senior Advisor for Arab and African Affairs Massad Boulos committed $375 million to humanitarian efforts last week and said there was no military solution to the conflict.
The war began in April 2023 and has spread to 13 of Sudan’s 18 states. According to Al Jazeera, 14 million people have been forcibly displaced and tens of thousands killed, while the United Nations has warned that Sudan’s humanitarian system is nearing collapse.
Earlier mediation efforts have produced only limited and temporary access. The US- and Saudi Arabia-mediated Jeddah Declaration in May 2023 soon collapsed after repeated violations, while initiatives involving the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, the African Union, the United Nations and the ALPS group have also failed to secure lasting pauses.
Fighting has continued in several areas. The SAF has claimed gains in South Kordofan, while Al Jazeera sources reported that its forces repelled an RSF attack in Blue Nile state. The RSF has separately claimed a major victory near El Obeid. The battlefield accounts have not been independently verified.
Analysts cited the political ambitions of SAF leader Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, as well as military calculations and ineffective international pressure. Former US envoy adviser Cameron Hudson told Al Jazeera that a strategy centred on sanctions and other pressure had failed to persuade either side to stop fighting.
