Press Conference: 6th Consultative Meeting on Enhancing Coordination of Peace Initiatives and Efforts in Sudan

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, here and online for this closing press conference following the 6th consultative meeting on enhancing coordination of peace initiatives and efforts in Sudan. Today, Wednesday 21st of October, here at the UN in Geneva, we will now hear from our speakers, Pekka Haavisto, the personal envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Sudan, and Tim Enderlin, Ambassador and Head Peace and Human Rights Division in the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of the Swiss Confederation that, as you know, was co-hosting the meeting. So I will start by giving the floor to our speakers for introductory remarks, and then I'll take questions. Thank you very much, Mr. Havisto. I think you will start with your remarks. I give you the floor. Thank you.

Thank you. Good to be here in Geneva. This was the sixth time that this kind of consultative meeting on Sudan was organized, and I'm very happy that Ambassador Tim Endelien and the team from Switzerland were co-hosting and co-organizers with United Nations this consultative meeting. We had altogether 26 countries and international institutions, 21 countries, five international institutions participating. And we have just concluded, actually, today's meetings. I have to tell you that we started already yesterday with some interventions and introductions of UN organizations and International Red Cross, ICRC, telling about the situation in Sudan and telling about their work and important work on the humanitarian front, on the human rights. sector and also on the environmental sector in Sudan, and many participants commented that this was the first time that they, for example, have a good briefing on the environmental damage that the war has caused in Sudan. The discussion was today concentrating on three key chapters, I would say, the security solution. covering the issues like humanitarian truce and possible ceasefire and what will follow after the ceasefire, also the political track of the issues, which are taking care of so-called quintet, five international organizations, African Union, IGAD, League of Arab States, European Union, and United Nations. And then, in addition, we have added this time to the program the regional perspectives, so that countries of the region. Countries like Chad, Kenya, South Sudan, Uganda, Libya, Ethiopia, Eritrea told their perspective of the current situation and also the burden that they have been carrying from the civil war in Sudan in the form of refugees and so on. We also had quite a lot of bilateral meetings and side meetings during this consultative meeting here in Geneva. Maybe the most important was The fact that the Quad, including United States, Saudi Arabia, Emirates, and Egypt, together with Quintet that I already earlier mentioned, had a common meetings yesterday evening. We spent actually quite late in the evening, first time really having this kind of informal chat among the principles of the Quintet and Quad, and we continued today. that kind of meeting, and it was the first time, I think, we interacted so intensively. We had one meeting during the UNGA, the UN High-Level Week in New York this autumn, and now we could here in Geneva continue our discussions. This is very important for the reason that when we speak about the peace in Sudan, We definitely need the security solutions, but we also need the political solutions. All parties in Sudan conflict are asking that if we agree humanitarian truce or if we agree ceasefire, how the day after will look like. And the day after is planned by this political work and political solution prepared by Quintet. And that's very important that the security tracks and the political tracks are meeting here. I want to thank you, of course, the Swiss government for excellent cooperation during the meeting and preparations, and you have an excellent team working closely with our UN team. So I'm ready then to answer later questions. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Ambassador, I'll give you the floor for your introductory remarks.

Thank you very much. And ladies and gentlemen, we must join forces for the people of Sudan. We must never lose sight of the fact that Sudan is facing the world's largest humanitarian crisis, with 34 million people dependent on humanitarian assistance. It is against this background that we gladly accepted the UN's request to co-chair the sixth consultative meeting here in Geneva under the leadership of personal envoy of the UN Secretary-General Pekka Havisto. and with the participation of so many states and organizations. The organization of these consultative meetings demonstrates the added value of the United Nations in bringing together key international actors and thereby promoting dialogue and coordination in support of sustainable conflict resolution, be it in Sudan or elsewhere. The request to host the sixth consultative meeting in Geneva also reflects, I believe, the enduring relevance of Geneva as an international center, particularly for peace talks and humanitarian work. Geneva is a venue for trust-based discussions within a secure framework where all states and parties can come together and express their views. As regards Switzerland, Sudan is a priority for the Swiss peace policy. Through its good offices, Switzerland stands ready to host talks aimed at finding negotiated solutions to conflict. The aim of bringing together the states supporting different peace and mediation initiatives relating to the war in Sudan is to maximize synergies and avoid a duplication of efforts and thereby increasing the effectiveness of our various peace promotion activities. And I think this has been exactly one of the results, and Mr. Havis has already alluded to it, one of the results of the meeting today, to link and coordinate ceasefire negotiations with discussions on inclusive political process to strive for better coordination among the different countries who engage in the Sudan crisis. In concluding, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to personal envoy Pekka Haavisto, to his team, to my team, obviously, as well, for the preparation of these talks for the organization of it. Our experience is the smoother you are able to organize such a meeting, which is complex in nature, and the better you are able to create constructive atmosphere, the more also you get to concrete results and constructive discussions, and I think this is something that together, the United Nations and Switzerland, we were able to achieve. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much to both our speakers. the floor to question now. And I see Beza. Beza is our correspondent of Anadolu, Turkish news agency.

Thank you, Alessandra. Beza Domas from Anadolu. I would like to start with asking what about any concrete outcomes of this meeting compared to the previous meetings we had, as this was the sixth one. And do you see this, after the meeting, do you see this as a step forward going in the process, or are we having similar calls for de-escalation, humanitarian aid, but the action still needs further meetings? Thank you.

Mr. Avista.

Yeah, maybe two. I start to answer by mentioning that while we are witnessing, unfortunately, a civil war in Sudan that has been lasting more than three years, we also are witnessing more diplomatic efforts than earlier around Sudan and more engagement with different fighters and political actors. As a quintet with the five different international organizations, we had a quite successful visit in the beginning of September in Khartoum. We also had some weeks ago so-called anti-war camp political group in Addis Ababa as our guest. We had just this weekend actually led by also some quintet members, the meeting with the youth and women in Nairobi and so forth. So a lot is happening on the political track and forming the possible transitional phase for Sudan. Unfortunately, we still have in Sudan parties who believe to military victory of this war. We as the international community are saying that there is no military solution to the conflict in Sudan. The solution has to be found from diplomatic talks and discussions and so forth. And this is, of course, our message to all parties in Sudan. One small step that the United Nations have been taking is trying to introduce so-called confidence-building measures, some steps that both parties can agree, and we have started with two issues. One is the possible exchange of the prisoners of the war or detainees, both civilian and soldiers who are detained during this conflict. And another issue is to facilitate the 12th grade exam for all the students in Sudan, independent of which region they are living in and so forth, we think that there are issues that should unite actually the both parties of the conflict, but these are, of course, baby steps compared with the terrible destruction that is happening in the country currently.

Thank you very much. Ambassador, if you want to add anything, just make me a sign. So any other question in the room before I go to the platform from the journalists present? No? Yeah? Taha Hassan, Associated Press Television News.

Thank you for this information provided. I will ask you, I ask you as a Sudanese citizen, not a journalist, because we are suffering a lot, and the people until now, they are suffering of this war, and we need to end this war. Please, could you give us how... can end and stop this war in Sudan. Thank you very much.

If I start and Tim can add, we have been meeting a lot of civilians, both inside the Sudan and outside of the country, some who are refugees at the moment, and we have been meeting many youth groups and women's groups, and my latest Meeting with women where in Kigali, where so-called Ntobe group is meeting, actually women from the both sides of the conflict. And it's very impressive how the civilians are working in the most difficult conditions, first to help the humanitarian situation in their country and in their region, but also advocating the peaceful solution to the conflict. And of course, this voice of Sudanese civilians is something that we are picking with us when we are talking to military leaders of the country. One issue that I have been raising several times is the fact that this is not only war between two generals, General Hemeti and General Burhan, but this is a war between the coalitions, and in these coalitions there are many actors, and these actors have many interests. And when talking about the peace in Sudan, It's not enough that you address only the highest military leadership, but you have to address also members of these coalitions and try to convince them to come to the peace table and find solutions for the peace. One issue is, of course, the fact of the war economy that has been developing throughout these war years. For example, gold and natural resources are used to finance this conflict. And unfortunately, all kinds of illicit trafficking is increasing, and there are people who benefit economically from this war. So all these aspects have to be taken into account when planning a peace negotiations.

You mentioned that this war must end, and the ones who are suffering from it are the civilian people in Sudan. I would also like to remind us all that we talk about the conflict in Sudan, but we are more and more aware also that it goes way beyond Sudan and also affects the region as such. I think for us as the international community, it's important to us, we tried these two days, to come up with coordinated efforts that will help to establish a process and a peace process that can be inclusive, that involves the people of Sudan, where their voices are heard, and that leads to a process that in the end is Sudan-owned and Sudan-led, and as I said before, where the civilian voice has an important place to take.

Thank you very much. Is there any other question in the room or on the platform? I don't see any other hand up. So I think we can conclude the press conference that, as you know, is live on the UN Web TV, so you'll be able to also find it there. I'd like to thank very much our two speakers, Pekka Haavisto, the personal envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Sudan, and Tim Anderlin, the Ambassador and Head of Peace and Human Rights Division, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland. Thank you very much to everyone. Thanks for having been with us, especially the people online, until this late hour. And thanks for being with us briefing the Geneva Press Corps. Have a nice evening.