Sudan peace talks begin in Switzerland despite army's no-show

CAIRO (Reuters) - Talks aimed at ending Sudan's shattering 16-month-old civil war began on Wednesday in Switzerland although the absence of the military dampened hopes for imminent steps to alleviate the country's humanitarian crisis.

U.N. officials have warned that Sudan is at "breaking point" and that there will be tens of thousands of preventable deaths from hunger, disease, floods, and violence in the coming months without a larger global response.

The paramilitary RSF, which has seized broad swathes of the country, sent a delegation to the talks but direct mediation will be impossible without the army present, U.S. special envoy Tom Perriello, who led the push for the talks, said this week.

Instead, participants including Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, the United Nations, African Union, East African body IGAD and experts would consult on roadmaps for a cessation of violence and carrying out humanitarian aid deliveries.

"Military operations will not stop without the withdrawal of every last militiaman from the cities and villages they have plundered and colonised," Sudanese armed forces chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said late on Tuesday. 

The RSF leadership has denied many accounts of fighters attacking civilians and looting, and says it is open to a peace deal if the army engages in talks.

The army has said its absence from the talks arises from the failure to implement previous U.S.- and Saudi-brokered commitments to pull combatants out of civilian areas and facilitate aid deliveries. Mediators say both sides disregarded that accord. 

"We are focused on ensuring parties comply with their Jeddah commitments and (their) implementation," Perriello said on X on Wednesday. The current talks will also focus on developing an enforcement mechanism for any deal.

The RSF has continued operations in several areas of Sudan, heavily bombarding the cities of Omdurman, al-Obeid, and al-Fashir, as well as pushing through into the southeast, displacing hundreds of thousands of civilians. 

The rainy season is in full swing, damaging homes and shelters across the country and threatening a wave of waterborne diseases. Over the last week, 268 cases of cholera were reported in Sudan, the health ministry said.

Aid deliveries into RSF-controlled areas have been severely delayed by the army-aligned government in Port Sudan, as well as by robberies and looting, often by RSF fighters, witnesses say.

The war erupted in April 2023 amid disputes over how to integrate the army and RSF as part of a transition from military rule to free elections. The world's worst humanitarian crisis has ensued with half the 50 million population lacking food and famine taking hold in part of the North Darfur region.

(Reporting by Nafisa Eltahir and Khalid Abdelaziz; editing by Mark Heinrich)