Why do Sudan’s humanitarian truces keep failing and who is to blame?

Efforts to bring about humanitarian truces in Sudan hit a dead end as warring factions prioritise battlefield victories. As the US pushes for a 90-day humanitarian truce, Sudan’s warring factions continue to prioritise military victories over mediation efforts. Efforts to bring about truces in Sudan are continuing to hit a dead end, with fighting continuing and worsening the country’s dire humanitarian situation. Renewed efforts, including by the United States, to implement temporary truces to allow desperately needed aid into the country have repeatedly failed. Fighting has intensified in recent months, with the United Nations warning that the humanitarian system in Sudan is on the brink of collapse. Aid groups have urged immediate truces to alleviate the humanitarian crisis, but rival factions continue to maintain their momentum on the battlefield and break local ceasefires.

Sudan’s civil war erupted in April 2023 after months of tensions between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) group. It expanded into 13 out of Sudan’s 18 states and has forcibly displaced 14 million people, creating one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises and killing tens of thousands of people. Several international mediation efforts have attempted to broker ceasefires to end fighting and bolster humanitarian efforts, amid cases of starvation. The first major initiative, the Jeddah Declaration in May 2023, was mediated