Bus accident with Shiite pilgrims from Pakistan to Iraq in Iran: At least 28 people die

DOHA: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed hope on Tuesday that an emerging humanitarian agreement in Sudan would provide the impetus for a broader deal to end the devastating war in the country.

Blinken, who focused on bringing about a ceasefire in the Gaza war during his visits to Egypt and Qatar, said he had also consulted the US-brokered talks on Sudan taking place in Switzerland.

“With everything else going on in the world, Sudan is currently the worst humanitarian situation in the world,” Blinken told reporters as he left Doha.

“More people in Sudan are suffering from fighting, violence and lack of access to food and basic humanitarian assistance,” Blinken said.

The United States said on Monday that talks in Switzerland were working to open three humanitarian routes for urgently needed food, including a vital border crossing from Chad.

“We obviously need to see progress here, but this is critical to getting vital help to people who desperately need it,” Blinken said.

“While we do that, of course, we are simultaneously working to reach a broader agreement to end hostilities,” he said.

US chief negotiator for Sudan, Tom Perriello, joined Blinken in talks with Egyptian leaders in the coastal city of El Alamein early Tuesday.

Perriello said he would also meet with a delegation from the Sudanese government in his latest attempt to persuade the Sudanese army to participate in the talks.

In April last year, a war broke out between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), devastating the country, which was already one of the poorest in the world.

More than 25 million people – more than half of Sudan's population – are facing acute hunger, according to UN agencies, after famine was declared in a refugee camp in Darfur, on the border with Chad.

The RSF sent a delegation to Switzerland, but the army refused to join.

Perriello has consulted with the army remotely, and Blinken has called army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan twice to urge him to participate.