The US State Department announced that its Special Envoy for Sudan, Tom Perriello, kicked off a new tour to Uganda, Kenya, Egypt and Saudi Arabia on Saturday to “meet with key regional partners to advance efforts to end the Sudan conflict.”
“The Special Envoy will meet with partner governments to coordinate diplomatic efforts to resume negotiations, build pressure needed to protect civilians and silence the guns, and facilitate a transition to a civilian-led democratic government,” it said in a statement yesterday.
The statement concludes that Mr Perriello will also meet with a broad range of Sudanese civilians, including civil society, resistance committees, local response networks, women, youth, grassroots organizations, and other parties to hear their perspectives on how to “bolster efforts to end the conflict.”
In March, the US Special Envoy visited a number of countries in Africa and the Middle East, where he met key partner governments and stakeholders to push for peace efforts.
The United States announced the appointment of Tom Perriello as US Special Envoy for Sudan in February after US lawmakers called for the appointment of a senior expert to help prevent Sudan from sliding deeper into a war that is one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Perriello would “advance our efforts to end the hostilities, secure unhindered humanitarian access, and support the Sudanese people as they seek to fulfil their aspirations for freedom, peace, and justice”.
He will also work to “empower Sudan’s civilian leaders and push US engagement with partners in Africa, the Middle East, and the international community to forge a united approach to stop this senseless conflict, prevent further atrocities, and promote accountability for crimes already committed”.
Sudan’s brutal civil war began just over a year ago, after the country’s two leading military men who had staged a coup together – one the head of the armed forces, the other the head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – fell out over the future of the country.
The war has wrecked the country and pushed its population to the brink of famine. More than 14,000 people have been killed and thousands have been wounded. Hundreds of thousands have been displaced.