Sudan's army and the country's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have agreed to return to negotiations to end a six-month war that has taken a toll on both sides and created a massive humanitarian crisis.
The Sudanese army accepted the invitation to the US- and Saudi-convened negotiations in Jeddah on Thursday as "negotiations are one of the means that may end the conflict". But it said it would not stop fighting.
"The resumption of negotiations does not mean a halt of the national battle of dignity," said the Sudanese General Command of the Armed Forces.
The RSF also said it accepted the invitation, while publishing a video of its second-in-command leading soldiers in Nyala, a major war zone.
The US and Saudi Arabia suspended the first round of talks in June after numerous ceasefire violations, and mediators grown frustrated with both sides' reluctance to work towards a sustained truce.
Almost six million people have been displaced and more than 9,000 have been killed since fighting broke out in April between forces loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the Rapid Support Forces.
In 2021 the two men had led a coup on that derailed a fragile transition to civilian rule.
The ongoing war has decimated the capital, Khartoum, and other major cities, creating what United Nations aid chief Martin Griffiths has called "one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in recent history".
The International Criminal Court is investigating possible war crimes by the RSF, which has been accused of ethnically-motivated attacks in the western region of Darfur.
The African Union and the East African regional body IGAD are expected to join the talks in Jeddah, which are to focus initially on humanitarian issues and ceasefires, as well as a groundwork for a negotiated solution to the conflict.
Civilian leaders, who have been holding organising meetings in Addis Ababa this week, will not be participating in the initial rounds of the talks, but could be brought in later.
(with newswires)
