High-level peace talks took place in August 2024 to negotiate a much-needed ceasefire in Sudan. Unfortunately, nothing tangible came out of the talks held in Switzerland and co-hosted by the US and Saudi Arabia.
There have been previous efforts to bring Sudan’s main warring parties – the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces – to the negotiating table and stop the war. A major effort in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, negotiated short-lived ceasefires a month into the start of the April 2023 conflict, but registered few other successes.
In the meantime, the fighting continues. Eleven million people, out of a population of about 50 million, have been displaced. Half of the population is in acute hunger. Philipp Kastner, an international law and peace scholar who has analysed several different peace negotiations and agreements, explains the obstacles in Sudan’s path to a peace deal.
