Sudan peace talks are scheduled to get underway in Geneva

Transcript

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

Sudan has reached a breaking point.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Those are the words of a United Nations official, speaking after more than a year of war. The refugee crisis is the worst in the world, which is saying something, if you think about the refugee crises in this world. More than 12 million people have been displaced by fighting between a military government and a paramiltary group. U.S-led talks to end the fighting begin in Geneva today.

FADEL: NPR's Emmanuel Akinwotu has been covering this and joins us now. Good morning, Emmanuel.

EMMANUEL AKINWOTU, BYLINE: Good morning, Leila.

FADEL: So before we get to this latest round of talks, I think we need a sense of just how bleak the situation is facing people in Sudan right now.

AKINWOTU: Yeah, it sounds like a broken record at this point to say, at pretty much every stage since last April, that the country's collapse has basically been a disaster, and it's still getting worse. More than a fifth of the population have been displaced. About half of the country is facing acute hunger and potentially famine. The World Food Programme said last week that their warnings on this just aren't being heard and that the aid response is critically underfunded. Mohamed Refaat is the head of the International Organization for Migrations mission in Sudan, which has been responding to the refugee crisis there, and he said it's like nothing he's ever seen.

MOHAMED REFAAT: The scale of this displacement and crisis is unknown since World War II. The people of Sudan are facing one crisis after another, with no end in sight - war, massive displacement, hunger, disease outbreak, and now floods.

AKINWOTU: Floods in Sudan have made the country's situation even worse, and Refaat said that about 70% of his staff in Sudan have been displaced, too, which just shows you how the crisis has affected everyone.

FADEL: I mean, you're describing such a dire situation, an urgent situation, and yet, diplomatic talks have failed over and over again. Why?

AKINWOTU: You know, for decades, Sudan has been this battleground of international competition for its resources, for influence, for control, and that's playing out now in the way this war is being prolonged. Several actors are fueling this, arming both sides, and a major one of growing focus is the United Arab Emirates. They deny this, but Sudan and other bodies have said that they are heavily funding the Rapid Support Forces, or the RSF.

FADEL: So how much hope is there around the talks that are happening today? Will they go a different way than previous talks that really were doomed?

AKINWOTU: It's already actually in a precarious state. The U.S. have been working to persuade the Sudanese Armed Forces, or the SAF, to come. They've so far said that they're not going to attend. The RSF have sent a delegation, and they're already saying that the military's absence in Geneva shows that they are the party that are blocking peace. Cameron Hudson is an analyst and a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, and he framed it this way.

CAMERON HUDSON: There's really no reason why either side has to talk. They're sustaining this fight from outside support. Unless that outside support dries up, there's nothing to make this new round of talks any more successful than last.

AKINWOTU: So the talks are a start, but nothing fundamentally is going to change without some very tough decisions.

FADEL: That's NPR's Emmanuel Akinwotu, in Lagos. Thank you, Emmanuel.

AKINWOTU: Thanks, Leila.

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