KHARTOUM, Sudan

Sudan and Saudi Arabia held discussions Monday on the resumption of Saudi-sponsored talks to end the war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and their rival the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Sudan's Transitional Sovereignty Council said in a statement that its chairman Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan held talks with Saudi Deputy Foreign Minister Walid Al-Khuraiji in the eastern city of Port Sudan.

The statement quoted Sudanese Foreign Ministry undersecretary Hussein Awad as saying the talks focused on resuming the Jeddah Platform talks.

Awad also said that during the meeting, al-Burhan expressed Sudan’s keenness to make the Jeddah Platform a success, considering it a basis upon which to build on.

The meeting also discussed the importance of expanding the base of mediators in the Jeddah negotiations, but at the same time al-Burhan expressed reservations about the presence of any party supporting the RSF, describing it as a "terrorist insurgent militia," according to the statement.

Riyadh and Washington have been hosting talks between the Sudanese army and the RSF that resulted in May last year in an agreement under which the two warring parties committed to protect civilians. Yet both parties traded accusations on several occasions of targeting civilians.

Since mid-April 2023, the Sudanese army and the RSF have been engaged in a war that has resulted in approximately 15,000 deaths and displaced around 8.5 million people, according to the United Nations.

Mediation efforts led by the US and Saudi Arabia have not yet succeeded in securing a cease-fire.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar