The conflict in Sudan began in April 2023 when fighting between the Sudanese army and RSF broke out in the capital Khartoum and quickly spread west across Darfur. (Source: PBS)

The Russian mission in Geneva said on August 9 that the country will not participate in negotiations between factions in Sudan organized by the US and Switzerland.

“Russia will not participate in the negotiations,” the mission said in a statement.

Earlier, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Washington had invited the Sudanese armed forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to participate in ceasefire negotiations in Switzerland, co-chaired by Saudi Arabia.

The African Union, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the United Nations attended as observers.

On August 9, the Sudanese government said it would send a delegation to Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) to consult with the US about an invitation to participate in ceasefire talks in Geneva, scheduled to be held on August 14.

On August 5, US Secretary of State Blinken urged the Commander-in-Chief of the Sudanese Armed Forces, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, to join peace talks in Switzerland to try to end the conflict in Sudan, after the head of the paramilitary RSF, General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, agreed to send a delegation.

Previous talks sponsored by the US and Saudi Arabia in the port city of Jeddah ended without any significant results.

The conflict in Sudan began in April 2023 when fighting between the Sudanese army and the RSF broke out in the capital Khartoum and quickly expanded westward across Darfur.

Statistics from the aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) show that about one-third of people hospitalized for fighting-related injuries in Sudan are women or children under 10 years old.

Since the conflict began, tens of thousands of people have died, some 25 million people face famine and are in need of humanitarian aid. An estimated 2.2 million Sudanese have fled abroad, while nearly 7.8 million have sought refuge elsewhere.

Previous conflicts have also displaced 2.8 million people in the East African country.