There is no military solution to the civil war in Sudan, where the fighting is fuelling further instability in the region, a senior US official said.
Massad Boulos, President Donald Trump's senior adviser for Arab and African affairs, said Washington officials this week joined representatives of 27 countries in Geneva for the sixth Consultative Meeting on Sudan.
"Every day that this war continues comes at a devastating cost to Sudanese civilians and risks spreading further instability to the region," Mr Boulos said in a post on X on Thursday.
The impact of the conflict on the wider region was underscored this week when a drone strike killed four people in Chad, near Sudan's western border. At least 14 were injured, an official from Chad's Wadi-Fira province said on Thursday.
Sudan’s civil war, which began in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has repeatedly spilled over into Chad. International efforts aimed at ending the conflict have so far been unsuccessful.
Mr Boulos voiced strong support for the efforts of the Quintet – which comprises the African Union, Arab League, UN, EU and Intergovernmental Authority on Development – to enable an inclusive and credible Sudanese-led political process to take place. He added that those efforts complemented US engagement with the Quad, which also includes the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, to press for a humanitarian truce that could pave the way for a permanent ceasefire.
During the Geneva meeting, participants called on all parties to the conflict to engage in good faith to pursue de-escalation, protect civilians and commit to a humanitarian truce. The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, the UK, Chad, China, France, Germany, Russia, Switzerland and South Sudan were among the nations represented.
Mr Boulos thanked Switzerland and the UN for hosting the meeting and said participants had collectively raised their voices in support of ending the conflict.
African civil society groups this month called on Sudan to allow international inspectors into the country to investigate accusations that SAF used chemical weapons in the war.
In a resolution adopted at the end of a three-day forum in Senegal's capital Dakar, the groups urged the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights to demand that Sudan allow the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to send technical teams into the country. Both the SAF and the RSF have been accused by the UN of war crimes and rights breaches.
The conflict has created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises. More than 14 million people have been displaced and nearly 20 million face hunger, the UN World Food Programme has said.
