U.S. announces the Aligned for Advancing Lifesaving and Peace in Sudan
American-led peace talks in Geneva wrapped up on Friday, August 23 without a ceasefire. U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello announces new Aligned for Advancing Lifesaving and Peace in Sudan (ALPS) Group will work to save lives.
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The war that has torn through Sudan for 16 long months is still worsening the largest humanitarian emergency in the world.
Khartoum lies in ruins, as do countless other towns and villages that the army and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have fought over, or that the RSF has simply massacred. Famine claims at least 100 lives on a “good day.” Bodies are piling up in makeshift cemeteries that are now so large they are being documented from space, while more satellite imagery documents trucks dumping the dead into the Nile River. No one knows the true death toll in Sudan, but some estimates put out months ago were already exceeding 150,000 lives lost. And that was well before famine was officially declared.
Private town hall with the State Department and USAID.
The likelihood of a ceasefire being secured in Geneva was already slim, a fact made worse by the army deciding to boycott the talks and the RSF delegation in Geneva failing to show up on the first day. But as we noted in mid-August, the Geneva platform was designed to shift into being a global summit, creating space for the international community to start breaking away from off-the-shelf diplomatic solutions that have had little to no impact.
This Plan B, so to speak, is now underway as the Aligned for Advancing Lifesaving and Peace in Sudan (ALPS) Group, which includes the United States, Switzerland, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the African Union, and the United Nations.
On September 3, Operation Broken Silence joined a private town hall for Sudanese diaspora and NGOs hosted by Special Envoy Perriello and USAID Deputy Administrator Isobel Coleman. The American officials shared updates from the progress the United States and international partners made on humanitarian priorities in Switzerland and discussed next steps.
Special Envoy Perriello also gave a separate, public briefing to reporters and a review of ALPS priorities moving forward. The briefing provides a good overview of what was discussed in the private town hall we attended. You can listen and read a summary with a bit of our own analysis below.
ALPS Public Briefing
See the full press briefing readout
“Given the scale of the suffering and the paralysis diplomatically, President Biden and Secretary Blinken asked me to lead an initiative of diplomatic partners…to meet in Switzerland to see whether we could produce some breakthroughs on key elements across three areas: humanitarian access, protection to civilians, and cessation to hostilities. We were able over a couple of weeks working intensively around the clock…to be able to produce some very significant breakthroughs.” - Special Envoy Perriello
On the humanitarian aid front, ALPS secured agreements to open the major Adré border crossing in western Sudan and to get pledges of aid access across the Dabbah Road coming east from Port Sudan. Both are now active with dozens of aid trucks already entering. This is still a drop in the bucket, something Perriello acknowledged in saying there is still much work to be done. Seasonal rains are also ongoing in Sudan, closing down many roads and making it even more difficult to get aid into some areas.
ALPS is negotiating for more aid expansions and success is being measured on food and medicine actually reaching Sudanese in starvation conditions. Perriello also noted that the United States is the largest humanitarian donor by far, contributing over a billion dollars since the beginning of the war to support humanitarian emergency needs inside Sudan as well as in neighboring countries who’ve opened borders to the Sudanese.
With regard to protecting civilians, ALPS has gotten a commitment to a public code of conduct by the RSF that will go out to combatants fighting under their auspices. The RSF has both intentionally engaged in genocide and war crimes and also has severe command-and-control issues, so it’s doubtful the paramilitary group will see improved behavior on any noticeable scale. ALPS did work with a group of Sudanese women on a number of aspects related to atrocities so as to try to ensure any progress reflected the horrors on the ground. ALPS has asked the army to submit and disseminate its own public code of conduct.
On the main priority to end the war, ALPS is seeing a lack of political will from the army and RSF to halt the fighting. ALPS is reiterating to the army and RSF that international humanitarian law and protection of civilians must be respected and is seeking new opportunities to get both sides to the negotiating table. ALPS believes that ending the war and protecting a unified and sovereign Sudan are essential, and that those pushing for alternative approaches —including partition— should not have a say in future discussions about Sudan.
Perriello noted that the unusual approach of a combination of in-person and virtual negotiations with the army and RSF —as well as technical and international partners— is what allowed for this limited progress to be made. “We hope in the coming weeks that we can continue to build on those successes, and including the issues of addressing famine but also expanding the protection for civilians and hopefully building common ground for a cessation of hostilities.”
Our Sudanese Partners Need Your Help
While these new efforts by the international community are welcome, Special Envoy Perriello notes they are still not enough to stem the suffering from war and spreading famine. As ALPS works to try to improve conditions in Sudan in the coming weeks and months, it is critical that we do everything we can to support local heroes on the ground who are saving lives right now. Your gift will help them continue their lifesaving work in this time of extreme crisis.
$1,000 - Fully funds one classroom at Endure Primary School in Yida Refugee Camp for half a semester.
$500 - Delivers food to Darfuri genocide survivors who have fled to South Sudan.
$250 - Provides a daily breakfast to 10 children for an entire month in Adré refugee camp, where many Darfuri genocide survivors now live.
$100 - Supports the monthly work of a sexual assault counselor in Zamzam displacement camp in North Darfur, Sudan.
$50 - Helps repair classrooms in Yida damaged by seasonal rains and provide for general maintenance.
Checks can be made payable to Operation Broken Silence and mailed to PO Box 770900 Memphis, TN 38177-0900.
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Operation Broken Silence is a registered 501(c)(3) organization. Donations are tax-deductible within the guidelines of U.S. law.
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The war that has torn through Sudan for 16 long months is still worsening the largest humanitarian emergency in the world. https://operationbrokensilence.org/blog/us-announces-the-aligned-for-advancing-lifesaving-and-peace-in-sudan-group
The Aligned for Advancing Lifesaving and Peace in Sudan (ALPS) Group, which includes the United States, Switzerland, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the African Union, and the United Nations. https://operationbrokensilence.org/blog/us-announces-the-aligned-for-advancing-lifesaving-and-peace-in-sudan-group
ALPS has secured agreements to open the major Adré border crossing in western Sudan, to get pledges of access across the Dabbah Road coming east from Port Sudan, and to get agreements from the army and RSF to guarantee access along both routes. https://operationbrokensilence.org/blog/us-announces-the-aligned-for-advancing-lifesaving-and-peace-in-sudan-group
As the Aligned for Advancing Lifesaving and Peace in Sudan Group works to try to improve conditions in Sudan in the coming weeks and months, it is critical that we do everything we can to support local heroes on the ground who are saving lives right now. https://operationbrokensilence.org/blog/us-announces-the-aligned-for-advancing-lifesaving-and-peace-in-sudan-group
