Blinken discusses need to end Sudan war with top general

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed the need to urgently end the war in Sudan with Sudanese army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan in a phone call on Tuesday, the State Department said.

The two also addressed ways to "enable unhindered humanitarian access, including cross border and cross line, to alleviate the suffering of the Sudanese people", it said.

Sudan has been gripped since April 2023 by a civil war between the Sudanese army, led by Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.

Thousands of civilians are estimated to have died.

Blinken discussed a resumption of peace negotiations with Burhan and the need to protect civilians and defuse hostilities in al-Fashir, North Darfur, the State Department said.

Recent attacks around al-Fashir have shattered a local truce that protected it from the wider war.

Egypt will host a conference next month bringing together Sudan's civilian political groups with other regional and global parties, the Egyptian foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

The conference aims to produce an agreement between Sudan's civilian groups on ways to build a comprehensive and permanent peace, it added.