Conflict and Peace

On Monday (1 May) the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan met with the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken for the first day of talks understood to be taking place until latest Friday (5 May). AFP have reported that the talks will last four days. Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov, along with their delegations, are meeting at the George P. Schultz National Foreign Affairs Training Center in Arlington, Virginia, a short distance south-west of Washington D.C. Mirzoyan, Bayramov and Blinken are understood to have sat down for negotiations at 09:45 local time yesterday, after both foreign ministers had their own individual meetings with Blinken beforehand. Statements issued by both Armenia and Azerbaijan said that issues of the security situation in the region and the process of normalisation of relations between the two countries were discussed in the meeting hosted by Blinken. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Armenian Service report that the talks are more aimed at "an agreement on the normalisation of relations" rather than a peace treaty, citing a U.S. official speaking to reporters on the condition of anonymity.

The Sudanese capital of Khartoum has been hit with air strikes despite a ceasefire that was supposed to allow civilians to flee. Fighting between the Sudanese army the a rival paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), broke out on Sunday (15 April) as talks over a transition to a civilian government broke down, and a power struggle between the army and the RSF erupted into violence. The army has said that the purpose of the air strikes was to flush out the RSF from the capital, Khartoum, reports the BBC. More than 500 people are confirmed to have been killed in the fighting, with the true number likely much higher. Over the past week, there have been reports of increasing food and water shortages in Khartoum as residents were unable to go outside having been warned against doing so. Despite attempts at enabling civilians to evacuate, millions are believed to still be stuck inside the capital. Last week, many countries evacuated diplomats and civilians from Sudan, including the US, European countries, and many GCC countries. The BBC also reports that aid has begun to arrive in the country, with an International Red Cross flight arriving in the country yesterday, on Sunday (30 April), in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan. 

Russia has launched another wave of missile strikes at Ukraine before dawn on Friday (28 April), killing at least nineteen people as of 3pm CET. According to Ukrainian national police, at least 17 people were killed after two Russian missiles hit a nine-storey residential building in the central city of Uman. Three children were also rescued from the rubble. In a separate attack, a 31-year-old woman and her 2-year old daughter were killed after a Russian missile hit the eastern city of Dnipro, according to the regional governor, Serhii Lysak. Four people were also wounded. In total, according to Ukrainian authorities Russia fired 23 missiles and two drones at Ukraine before dawn on Friday (28 April). 21 missiles in total were shot down, with 11 missiles and the two drones were intercepted by air defense over Kyiv, said the city hall, with no immediate reports of missiles hitting targets and no reports of casualties. It is the first attack on the city since March. Interfax news agency also reports there have been explosions in the cities of Poltava and Kremenchuk.

The processes that have been taking place in the Gulf region and the wider Middle East over the last year - which healed the schism within the GCC, reconciled Turkey with Saudi Arabia and the UAE, started the process of bringing back Syria within the Arab fold, and, even more dramatically, started the process of reconciling Saudi Arabia and Iran - appeared in recent days to have even reached Yemen, when the exchange of large numbers of prisoners during the Ramadan month, and the meetings between Saudi officials and the Houthi leadership, augured well for that painful conflict to be also finally resolved. Yet, just as pundits hailed a new era of peace in the Middle East, Sudan erupted into a civil war that has already claimed hundreds of lives, and potentially can be hugely devastating.