UN warns Sudan’s fighting continues as proposed dialogue faces resistance

Sudan’s warring parties are not moving closer to a negotiated pause in fighting, the UN’s political and peacebuilding affairs chief told the Security Council on 16 October, as attacks on civilians and aid operations continued. Rosemary DiCarlo said fighting was concentrated in North Kordofan, South Kordofan and Blue Nile, while drone and air strikes put civilians at risk far beyond those front lines. She said the parties had shown no credible commitment to compromise. [1]

The danger to relief deliveries was brought home by an attack on two trucks contracted by the World Food Programme to carry food in South Kordofan on 3 October. One driver was killed. DiCarlo described it as a drone strike; the WFP called it an aerial attack, did not identify a perpetrator and called for an impartial investigation. [1] [3]

A food-security alert published on 12 October warned that famine risk was growing in parts of Greater Darfur and Greater Kordofan, with conflict, displacement and drought all contributing. In Nyala, South Darfur, screenings of about 21,000 children aged six to 59 months between January and August found that the proportion with severe acute malnutrition among those reaching nutrition services rose from 5.2% to 11.4%. That figure describes children who accessed care, not all children in the city; the alert does not amount to a new famine classification. [4]

Aid movements across borders and front lines have generally improved, according to the alert. But it says large populations, particularly in Greater Kordofan, remain isolated or beyond reach. [4]

Sudan’s representative offered a more hopeful account of political efforts, telling the council that a preparatory committee was consulting on who could take part in an internal Sudanese dialogue and how it would work. He said army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan had offered legal protections for participants. The committee was not newly formed: Sudanese outlets reported its public launch in Khartoum on 30 August. [1] [5] [6]

Nor is participation assured. Sudan Tribune reported in August that political and civil opponents of Burhan’s dialogue initiative had said they would not join it or recognise its outcome, objecting to what they regarded as a unilateral process. DiCarlo said mediators were working towards a humanitarian truce, but warned that talks would need to produce commitments and action. [7] [1]