Sudan's protest movement accepted an Ethiopian roadmap for a civilian-led transitional government, a spokesman said on Sunday, after a months-long standoff with the country's military rulers.
Ethiopia has led diplomatic efforts to bring the protest and military leaders back to the negotiating table, after a crackdown against the pro-democracy movement led to a collapse in talks. According to protest organizers, security forces killed at least 128 people across the country, after they violently dispersed the sit-in demonstration outside the military's headquarters in the capital, Khartoum, earlier this month. Authorities have offered a lower death toll of 61, including three from the security forces.
Yet it appeared that protest leaders, represented by the Forces for the Declaration of Freedom and Change, were open to the Ethiopian initiative as a way out of the political impasse.
Sudanese supporters of Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, the deputy head of the military council, sit on the top of a truck in front of soldiers from the Rapid Support Forces unit, during a military-backed tribe's rally, in the East Nile province, Sudan, Saturday, June 22, 2019. Sudan's protest leaders say they are meeting with an Ethiopian envoy over proposals to resume negotiations with the ruling military council. (AP PhotoHussein Malla)
Ahmed Rabie, a spokesman for the Sudanese Professionals' Association which is part of the FDFC, told The Associated Press that the proposal included a leadership council with eight civilian and seven military members, with a rotating chairmanship. All the civilians would come from the FDFC, except for one independent and "neutral" appointee, he said.
Rabie said that the roadmap would build on previous agreements with the military. These include a three-year transition period, a protester-appointed Cabinet and a FDFC-majority legislative body.
Rabie added that protest leaders would also discuss with the Ethiopian envoy, Mahmoud Dirir, the possibility of establishing an "independent" Sudanese investigation. Previously, the FDFC had said it would only resume talks with the military if it agreed to the formation of an international commission to investigate the killings of protesters.
The ruling military council has so far rejected the idea of an international probe, and says it has started its own investigation, in parallel with that of the state prosecutor.
The FDCF said Saturday said their approval of the Ethiopian plan "pushes all the parties to bear their responsibilities" to find a peaceful solution.
It urged the military council to accept the plan "in order to move the situation in Sudan" forward.
The military council did not immediately say whether it would also agree to the Ethiopian roadmap. A spokesman for the council did not immediately answer calls seeking comment.
World donors pledged more than $2.1 billion in humanitarian aid for Sudan after a yearlong war that has pushed its population to the brink of famine, French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday.
Macron spoke at the end of an international conference in Paris aimed at drumming up support for Sudan’s 51 million people. The aid will go to food, water, medicines and other urgent needs, he said, without providing a specific timeline.
Top diplomatic envoys, U.N. officials and aid agencies urged Sudan’s warring parties to stop attacks on civilians and allow access for humanitarian aid, and called for immediate international mediation efforts toward peace. Members of Sudan’s civil society took part in the Paris meeting, but neither the Sudanese army nor its rival paramilitary were represented.
Sudan descended into conflict in April last year when simmering tensions between the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere across the country.
“Much of the world has been focused on the crisis that was generated in the Middle East. As concerning as those developments are, other dramatic life-and-death emergencies are being pushed into the shadows,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres told reporters after the Security Council met on Sudan on Monday.
“The world is forgetting about the people of Sudan,” he said.
The United Nations’ humanitarian campaign needs some $2.7 billion this year to get food, health care and other supplies to 24 million people in Sudan — nearly half its population. So far, funders have given only $145 million, about 5%, according to the U.N’s humanitarian office, known as OCHA.
After Monday's conference, Macron said, ‘’We are today at 2 billion euros ($2.1 billion) for Sudan.'' Of that, some 900 million euros comes from EU countries, he said.
Monday's conference among 58 countries also called on regional powers to stop funding Sudan’s war. Without naming them, Macron said, ’’The amount we raised today remains probably less than all the money raised by several powers'' to wage a proxy conflict in Sudan.
More than 14,000 people have been killed and at least 33,000 have been wounded in the yearlong war. Nearly 9 million people have been forced to flee their homes either to safer areas inside Sudan or to neighboring countries, according to the U.N. Hunger, sexual violence against women and girls and continued displacement are rampant and much of the country's infrastructure — homes, hospitals and schools — has been reduced to rubble.
“We cannot let this nightmare slide from view,” Guterres said in a video message to the Paris conference.
“It’s time to support the Sudanese people. It’s time to silence the guns," he added.
French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said the aim of the conference was to mobilize humanitarian funding to help Sudanese people, who have been victims of both a “terrible war” and “international indifference.”
The European Union's crisis management commissioner, Janez Lenarcic, said the 27-member bloc wants to ensure that Sudan is not forgotten as wars in Gaza and Ukraine dominate the international news.
“People of Sudan, caught up in this emergency, are almost completely invisible,” Lenarcic said. Sudan has turned into one of the worst humanitarian disasters ever on the African continent, he said, and added: “It is our duty not to look away.”
President of the International Committee of the Red Cross Mirjana Spoljaric warned that humanitarian action is increasingly politicized in Sudan and humanitarian workers are risking their lives to get vital aid to people.
“Securing a military advantage cannot be pursued regardless of the human cost,” Spoljaric said.
The United States and Saudi Arabia initially led efforts to find a negotiated way out of the conflict. But since October the fighting has been overshadowed by the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, which is threatening to expand into a broader regional conflict.
Relief workers, meanwhile, warn that Sudan is hurtling towards potential mass death in the coming months. Food production and distribution networks have broken down and aid agencies are unable to reach the worst-stricken regions.
The conflict has also been marked by widespread reports of atrocities including killings, displacement and rape, particularly in the area of the capital and the western region of Darfur.
At least 37% of the population at crisis level or above suffer from hunger, according to OCHA. Save the Children warned that about 230,000 children, pregnant women and newborn mothers could die of malnutrition in the coming months.
“Famine is a reality in Sudan,” said Abdallah al-Dardari, a regional director of the U.N. Development Program.
The military, headed by Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and the RSF, commanded by Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, have carved up Khartoum and trade indiscriminate fire at each other. In 2021, Burhan and Dagalo were uneasy allies who led a military coup. They toppled an internationally recognized civilian government that was supposed to steer Sudan’s democratic transition.
Magdy reported from Cairo and Surk from Nice, France. AP journalist Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.
French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a session at the international conference on Sudan, Monday, April 15, 2024 in Paris. Top diplomats and aid groups met in the French capital to drum up humanitarian support for Sudan after a yearlong war has devastated the northeastern African country and pushed its people to the brink of famine. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard; Pool)
French President Emmanuel Macron attends a session at the international conference on Sudan, Monday, April 15, 2024 in Paris. Top diplomats and aid groups met in the French capital to drum up humanitarian support for Sudan after a yearlong war has devastated the northeastern African country and pushed its people to the brink of famine. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard; Pool)
French President Emmanuel Macron, center, attends a session at the international conference on Sudan, Monday, April 15, 2024 in Paris. Top diplomats and aid groups met in the French capital to drum up humanitarian support for Sudan after a yearlong war has devastated the northeastern African country and pushed its people to the brink of famine. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard; Pool)
French President Emmanuel Macron, right, speaks during a session at the international conference on Sudan, Monday, April 15, 2024 in Paris. Top diplomats and aid groups met in the French capital to drum up humanitarian support for Sudan after a yearlong war has devastated the northeastern African country and pushed its people to the brink of famine. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard; Pool)
French President Emmanuel Macron attends a session at the international conference on Sudan, Monday, April 15, 2024 in Paris. Top diplomats and aid groups met in the French capital to drum up humanitarian support for Sudan after a yearlong war has devastated the northeastern African country and pushed its people to the brink of famine. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard; Pool)
French President Emmanuel Macron, center, chairs an international conference on Sudan, Monday, April 15, 2024 in Paris. Top diplomats and aid groups met in the French capital to drum up humanitarian support for Sudan after a yearlong war has devastated the northeastern African country and pushed its people to the brink of famine. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard; Pool)
French President Emmanuel Macron attends a session at the international conference on Sudan, Monday, April 15, 2024 in Paris. Top diplomats and aid groups met in the French capital to drum up humanitarian support for Sudan after a yearlong war has devastated the northeastern African country and pushed its people to the brink of famine. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard; Pool)
FILE - Sudanese Ambassador to the United Nations Al-Harith Idriss Al-Harith Mohamed, third from right bottom, listens as Karim Khan, third from right top, Prosecutor of International Criminal Court, addresses a Security Council meeting on the situation in Sudan, Thursday, July 13, 2023, at United Nations headquarters. Sudan has been torn by war for a year now, torn by fighting between the military and the notorious paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)
FILE - Sudan's Army chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan speaks in Khartoum, Sudan, on Dec. 5, 2022. Sudan has been torn by war for a year now, torn by fighting between the military and the notorious paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. (AP Photo/Marwan Ali, File)
FILE - Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, then deputy head of the military council, salutes during a rally, in Galawee, northern Sudan, June 15, 2019. Sudan has been torn by war for a year now, torn by fighting between the military and the notorious paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. (AP Photo, File)
Sudanese Children suffering from malnutrition are treated at an MSF clinic in Metche Camp, Chad, near the Sudanese border, Saturday, April 6, 2024. Many people here fled the fighting in Sudan's vast western region of Darfur, where attacks by the Arab-dominated Rapid Support Forces on ethnic African civilians have revived memories of genocide. The United Nations says close to 9 million people have fled their homes. (AP Photo/Patricia Simon)
FILE - People prepare food in a Khrtoum neighborhood on June 16, 2023. Sudan has been torn by war for a year now, torn by fighting between the military and the notorious paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. (AP Photo, File)
File - A man walks by a house hit in recent fighting in Khartoum, Sudan, Tuesday, April 25, 2023. Sudan has been torn by war for a year now, torn by fighting between the military and the notorious paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. (AP Photo/Marwan Ali, File)
