Sudan: Conflicting Statements over the Jeddah Negotiations

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah Al-Saud stands along with other officials as representatives of the Sudanese army and rival Rapid Support Forces sign an agreement for a seven-day ceasefire in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, May 20, 2023. Saudi Press Agency/Handout via REUTERS
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah Al-Saud stands along with other officials as representatives of the Sudanese army and rival Rapid Support Forces sign an agreement for a seven-day ceasefire in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, May 20, 2023. Saudi Press Agency/Handout via REUTERS
TT
20

Sudan: Conflicting Statements over the Jeddah Negotiations

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah Al-Saud stands along with other officials as representatives of the Sudanese army and rival Rapid Support Forces sign an agreement for a seven-day ceasefire in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, May 20, 2023. Saudi Press Agency/Handout via REUTERS
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah Al-Saud stands along with other officials as representatives of the Sudanese army and rival Rapid Support Forces sign an agreement for a seven-day ceasefire in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, May 20, 2023. Saudi Press Agency/Handout via REUTERS

The Sudanese Army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) issued conflicting statements over the talks in Jeddah, while the Saudi and American mediators are running the process very discreetly.

The army denied reaching any new truce, describing the statements about progress made in this regard as inaccurate.

Reports by sources, who are informed of the course of negotiations, had confirmed that the two sides reached understandings that could lead to the cessation of hostilities and a lasting truce in Sudan.

Sudanese Armed Forces Spokesman Brigadier General Nabil Abdallah said that reports about an “alleged truce” were incorrect, pointing that the Army negotiating team was still in Sudan and that the talks were still halted.

His comments came in response to statements by the Freedom and Change coalition, about an imminent ceasefire between the two sides, which would last for 60 days.

Last week, the Sudanese Army announced that its delegation has returned from Jeddah on July 26, and that it was ready to resume the talks when obstacles are removed, pointing to ongoing disputes over essential points, including the evacuation of citizens’ homes, services facilities, hospitals and roads.

For its part, the RSF stressed that its delegation would stay in Jeddah, attributing the faltering of the agreement to the army delegation’s condition to open a safe passage for the exit of its commanders besieged in military headquarters in Khartoum.

The city of Jeddah has been hosting for three months direct and indirect talks between Sudan’s warring parties, with Saudi-American mediation.

The negotiations led to the signing of a number of agreements, including a humanitarian declaration, which the parties failed to implement.

The conflict has seen more than 3 million people uprooted, including more than 700,000 who have fled to neighboring countries.



Gaza Rescuers Say Nine Children among Dead in Israel Strike on UN Building

A crying Palestinian girl stands over the debris of a house hit by an Israeli strike in the south Gaza city of Khan Yunis on Wednesday. - AFP
A crying Palestinian girl stands over the debris of a house hit by an Israeli strike in the south Gaza city of Khan Yunis on Wednesday. - AFP
TT
20

Gaza Rescuers Say Nine Children among Dead in Israel Strike on UN Building

A crying Palestinian girl stands over the debris of a house hit by an Israeli strike in the south Gaza city of Khan Yunis on Wednesday. - AFP
A crying Palestinian girl stands over the debris of a house hit by an Israeli strike in the south Gaza city of Khan Yunis on Wednesday. - AFP

The Israeli army said it targeted Hamas militants in a strike on a UN building in Jabalia refugee camp Wednesday that Gaza's civil defense agency said killed 19 people, nine of them children.

The army said in a statement that it struck the militants "inside a command and control centre that was being used for coordinating terrorist activity", and separately confirmed to AFP the building housed a UN clinic.

Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said there were also dozens of people wounded in the strike which "targeted an UNRWA building housing a medical clinic".

The army said that "the compound was used by Hamas's Jabalia Battalion to plan terror attacks", and accused Hamas of "exploiting the civilian population as a human shield".

The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned the "massacre at the UNRWA clinic in Jabalia", calling for "serious international pressure" to halt Israel's widening offensive.

The Islamic Jihad militant group, a Hamas ally, called the bombing a "blatant war crime".

Israel has on several occasions conducted strikes on UNRWA buildings housing displaced people in Gaza, where fighting has raged for most of the past 18 months.

A strike on the United Nations-run Al-Jawni school in central Gaza on September 11 drew international outcry after UNRWA said six of its staff were among the 18 people reported killed.

The Israeli military accuses Hamas of hiding in school buildings where thousands of Gazans have sought shelter -- a charge the Palestinian militant group denies.

Israel resumed major airstrikes on the Palestinian territory on March 18, after talks on next steps in a six-week truce broke down.

It also conducted airstrikes on southern and central Gaza on Wednesday that the civil defense agency said killed at least 15 people, including children, in the city of Khan Yunis and Nuseirat refugee camp.

Since then, at least 1,042 people have been killed in Gaza, according to figures last updated by Gaza's health ministry on Tuesday.

In total, 50,399 people have been killed since the start of the war triggered by Hamas's October 2023 attack, according to the ministry's figures, which the United Nations views as reliable.