US Invites Sudan's Warring Parties for Talks

FILE PHOTO: A view of a street in the city of Omdurman damaged in the year-long civil war in Sudan, April 7, 2024. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A view of a street in the city of Omdurman damaged in the year-long civil war in Sudan, April 7, 2024. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
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US Invites Sudan's Warring Parties for Talks

FILE PHOTO: A view of a street in the city of Omdurman damaged in the year-long civil war in Sudan, April 7, 2024. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A view of a street in the city of Omdurman damaged in the year-long civil war in Sudan, April 7, 2024. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo

Washington has invited the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces for US-mediated ceasefire talks starting on Aug. 14 in Switzerland, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday.

RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo said early on Wednesday they will constructively participate in the talks to achieve "a comprehensive ceasefire across the country and facilitate humanitarian access to all those in need."
"We reaffirm our firm stance ... which is the insistence on saving lives, stopping the fighting, and paving the way for a peaceful, negotiated political solution that restores the country to civilian rule and the path of democratic transition," Dagalo said in a statement.

The talks will include the African Union, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and the United Nations as observers, Blinken said in a statement. Saudi Arabia will be a co-host for the discussions, he added.

"The scale of death, suffering, and destruction in Sudan is devastating. This senseless conflict must end," Blinken said, calling on the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF to attend the talks and approach them constructively.

The war in Sudan, which erupted in April 2023, has forced almost 10 million people from their homes, sparked warnings of famine and waves of ethnically-driven violence.



Turkish Soldier Killed in Clash in Northern Iraq, Defense Ministry Says 

A member of the PKK carries an automatic rifle on a road in the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq, 22 June 2018 (AFP)
A member of the PKK carries an automatic rifle on a road in the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq, 22 June 2018 (AFP)
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Turkish Soldier Killed in Clash in Northern Iraq, Defense Ministry Says 

A member of the PKK carries an automatic rifle on a road in the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq, 22 June 2018 (AFP)
A member of the PKK carries an automatic rifle on a road in the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq, 22 June 2018 (AFP)

A Turkish soldier was killed on Monday in a clash with militants from the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq and Turkish airstrikes killed many militants, the Defense Ministry said.

The airstrikes also destroyed 21 PKK targets, the ministry said in a statement without elaborating.

Ankara uses the term "neutralized" to mean killed.

The soldier was killed in a clash in Gara region and Turkish air forces targeted PKK bases in Gara, Hakurk, Metina and Qandil, the ministry said.

The PKK, designated a terrorist group by Türkiye, the United States and the European Union, took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the insurgency.

Ankara has conducted years of cross-border military operations against militants that have left roughly half the Syrian territory bordering Türkiye and all of Iraqi territory bordering Türkiye controlled or overseen by Türkiye’s military.