Sudanese government agrees to attend Geneva peace talks

Sudan’s government conditionally accepted on Tuesday an invitation to attend US-sponsored peace talks in Geneva, raising hopes that the talks could advance efforts to end a 15-month-old war. The government is aligned with the army in its war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The army has shunned recent bids to restart ceasefire or peace negotiations, with Islamists who hold sway in its ranks calling for a military victory. The Geneva talks would be the first major effort in months to get the army and the RSF to sit together. The RSF accepted the US invitation soon after it was proposed last week. “The government said (in its reply to the invitation) that it was the party most concerned with saving the lives and dignity of the Sudanese people, and so it will cooperate with any entity that aims to do so,” the Sudanese foreign ministry said in a statement. The war has caused the world’s largest humanitarian crisis with a fifth of the population displaced and famine ...