The US Secretary of State said the US president is “the only leader in the world who can resolve the Sudan crisis.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said President Donald Trump is personally overseeing efforts to end Sudan’s war, which enters its third year of severe suffering for civilians.
Rubio told a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Wednesday that Trump is “the only leader in the world who can solve the Sudan crisis.”
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Last month, President Trump announced a plan to work with Quad members the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and other regional partners to end the brutal 30-month conflict.
President Trump said at a news conference in the United States that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had asked him to intervene to end the war in Sudan.
President Trump described Sudan as “one of the most violent places” in the world and facing the planet’s greatest humanitarian crisis. It added that it called on international leaders to intervene and use their influence to stop the violence.
Sudan’s civil war broke out in April 2023, when the government-led Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) clashed over control of the region, including the capital Khartoum.
Peace negotiations have been complicated by recent advances by the RSF.
Earlier this week, RSF claimed control of Babnusa, the main city in Sudan’s vast central West Kordofan region. SAF disputes this claim.
Babnusa serves as the gateway to the western Darfur region and all of western Sudan, which the RSF took full control of last month.
The RSF’s attack on Bab Nusa is a further boost to the militia’s control of the city of El Fasher, the last military stronghold in Darfur, after an 18-month siege. RSF is accused of carrying out widespread atrocities in El Fasher.
The fighting also appears to violate a unilateral ceasefire announced by the RSF following Quad mediation efforts.
The South African military rejected the ceasefire terms offered by the Quad, saying they were too favorable to the enemy, and accused the RSF of continuing to attack despite the ceasefire declaration. He also said the UAE’s involvement in the Quad was lopsided and that the proposal was aimed at eliminating the military.
The UAE has been widely accused of supporting the RSF with money and arms, but has steadfastly denied any involvement.
UN human rights commissioner Volker Turk said on Thursday he was concerned about new atrocities amid heavy fighting between the SAF and RSF.
The UN Human Rights Council has already mandated one investigation into alleged atrocities, including systematic mass murder, rape, torture and forced displacement of non-Arab people, after the RSF seized El Fasher.
United Nations figures put the death toll in Sudan’s war at more than 40,000, but aid groups say this is an underestimate and the real number could be many times higher.
The United Nations said the war has caused the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis, forcing millions to flee their homes and plunging parts of the country into famine.
Al Jazeera’s Arabic correspondent Asmaa Mohammed, reporting from al-Afad refugee camp in Sudan’s northern state, said families evacuated from Darfur and Kordofan, the scene of heavy fighting in recent weeks, were in a “dire humanitarian situation.”
There is also a shortage of medicines, specialized health workers including pediatricians, and emergency services, it added.
