Sudan Peace Efforts Resume in Geneva as UN Warns of ‘Drone War’ Killing Civilians

International efforts to end Sudan’s civil war have resumed, with a first session devoted to de-escalation and practical steps toward a comprehensive ceasefire, the UN Secretary-General’s personal envoy for Sudan, Pekka Haavisto, told delegates.

Haavisto urged participants to use their respective channels of engagement to build confidence and create conditions for a ceasefire. The meeting, co-hosted with Switzerland, brings renewed diplomatic attention to a conflict now in its fourth year that has produced one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

A war fought from the air

The fighting began in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, former allies who had jointly seized power in a 2021 coup. Deadly drone strikes against civilians and public infrastructure have become a defining feature of the war and have been repeatedly condemned by humanitarian and human rights officials.

“The war in Sudan has become a drone war; it kills mostly civilians,” said Alexandre Fasel, State Secretary of Switzerland. He added that famine-like conditions persist in Darfur, Kordofan and elsewhere, and that it is the war itself that drives the hunger.

Protection cannot wait, mediators say

Fasel insisted that the Geneva Conventions are clear: the protection of civilians and humanitarian access must not wait for a ceasefire or a political settlement, because civilians are suffering and dying today. That argument — that aid corridors and restraint toward non-combatants should be negotiated in parallel with, not after, a halt to fighting — is expected to shape the talks.

Previous rounds of diplomacy have repeatedly stalled, and neither warring party has shown much willingness to compromise. Mediators are therefore framing this round modestly, as an attempt to identify concrete de-escalation measures rather than a final political solution.

Source: UN News