US-Sudanese Jeddah Consultations Falter Amid Several Differences

Representatives of the two parties to the Sudanese conflict during the signing of the Jeddah declaration in May 2023. (Reuters)
Representatives of the two parties to the Sudanese conflict during the signing of the Jeddah declaration in May 2023. (Reuters)
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US-Sudanese Jeddah Consultations Falter Amid Several Differences

Representatives of the two parties to the Sudanese conflict during the signing of the Jeddah declaration in May 2023. (Reuters)
Representatives of the two parties to the Sudanese conflict during the signing of the Jeddah declaration in May 2023. (Reuters)

Talks in Jeddah between representatives of Sudan’s army-backed government and US officials have ended without agreement on the army’s participation in ceasefire negotiations with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Geneva later this week.

On Thursday, the Port Sudan government dispatched a delegation to Riyadh, where it held consultations over two days with US Special Envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello.

In a statement on Facebook, Minister of Minerals Mohammed Abu Nimo said: “In my capacity as head of the government delegation in the consultative meetings with the Americans in the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, I announce the end of the consultations without agreement on the participation of the Sudanese delegation in the Geneva negotiations...”

Informed sources said that the government’s representatives emphasized the need to exclude the Intergovernmental Authority for Development (IGAD) and the United Arab Emirates from the process.

Other points of contention, according to the same sources, included the Sudanese delegation’s refusal that participation in the negotiations be in the name of the government and not the army. It also demanded that the process be launched by implementing the “Jeddah Humanitarian Declaration” before engaging into any other talks.

“The matter of Sudan's participation is now left to the leadership [army chief Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan] and its assessment,” Abu Nimo said in his statement.

“There certainly are many details that prompted us to decide to end the consultations without an agreement,” he added without elaborating.

In late July, the United States invited the warring parties – the army and RSF - to hold talks in Geneva to reach a ceasefire under Saudi-Swiss auspices, and in the presence of observers from the African Union, IGAD, the UAE, and Egypt.



Polio Vaccination Starts in North Gaza Despite Obstacles

A medic administers a polio vaccine to a Palestinian girl at the al-Daraj neighborhood clinic in Gaza City on September 10, 2024. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
A medic administers a polio vaccine to a Palestinian girl at the al-Daraj neighborhood clinic in Gaza City on September 10, 2024. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
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Polio Vaccination Starts in North Gaza Despite Obstacles

A medic administers a polio vaccine to a Palestinian girl at the al-Daraj neighborhood clinic in Gaza City on September 10, 2024. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
A medic administers a polio vaccine to a Palestinian girl at the al-Daraj neighborhood clinic in Gaza City on September 10, 2024. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

A campaign to vaccinate a final 200,000 children in north Gaza against polio began on Tuesday although health and aid officials said the operation was complicated by access restrictions, evacuation orders and shortages of fuel.

The campaign in north Gaza, the part of the territory hardest hit by Israel's 11-month military offensive against Hamas militants, follows the vaccination of more than 446,000 Palestinian children in central and south Gaza earlier this month.

Medical staff had started administering vaccines in the north despite a dire need for fuel, among other challenges, said Dr. Moussa Abed of the primary care unit in Gaza's health ministry.
Vaccination centers are in areas that are militarily very active, difficult to reach and isolated if things go wrong, said Sam Rose, a deputy director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.
"There are some nerves, but we'll have to make it work," he told Reuters by text message.
On Monday, Israel stopped a convoy that included vehicles and fuel for the vaccination campaign as well as a World Health Organization team trying to get to Gaza's Al Shifa hospital and the mission had to be aborted, the WHO's Tarik Jasarevic told reporters in a briefing.
'EXTREMELY DIFFICULT'
Israel also issued an evacuation order in north Gaza, the first in more than two weeks, that included areas that are part of humanitarian pause zones agreed upon for the polio vaccinations, according to a UN update on Monday.
"The centralization of services in the south makes it extremely difficult for us to get fuel, to get access to vaccinations, and to all other logistics," Mahmoud Shalabi of Medical Aid for Palestinians, a UK-based charity, told Reuters via a spokesperson.
"There is still no fuel for the movement of vehicles for vaccination teams in the north."
The campaign to vaccinate some 640,000 children in Gaza began on Sept. 1, following confirmation by the WHO last month that a baby had been partially paralyzed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years.
The campaign in north Gaza aims to conclude a first vaccination round, with a second set to commence after a month.