Arab states refuse to agree on efforts to end Sudan civil war

A British-led attempt to establish a contact group to facilitate ceasefire talks in Sudan fell apart yesterday when Arab states refused to sign a joint communique after a conference in London.

- Patrick Wintour

The day-long argument between Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates over the communique represents a big diplomatic setback to efforts to end the bloody two-year civil war in Sudan.

Hundreds of civilians have been killed in two major refugee camps in Darfur in recent days, and millions of Sudanese people have been displaced by the fighting.

The Foreign Office said it was saddened by the inability to get agreement on a political way forward, but insisted progress had been made.

With no final communique agreed, the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, and his counterparts from France, Germany, the African Union and the European Union instead issued a joint co-chairs' statement pledging to support "efforts to find a peaceful solution and reject all activities, including external interference, that heighten tensions or that prolong or enable fighting".

The statement called for a solution that did not lead to Sudan's partition.

Lammy had opened the conference, saying: "Many have given up on Sudan. That is wrong. It's morally wrong when we see so many civilians beheaded, infants as young as one subjected to sexual violence, more people facing famine than anywhere else in the world. We simply cannot look away. And as I speak, civilians and aid workers in El Fasher and Zamzam IDP [refugee] camp are facing unimaginable violence."

He added: "The biggest obstacle is not a lack of funding or texts at the United Nations, it's lack of political will. Very simply, we have got to persuade the warring parties to protect civilians, to let aid in and across the country - and to put peace first."