US State Department establishes special taskforce to deal with Sudan crisis

By Jennifer Hansler, CNN

The US State Department has established a special taskforce to deal with the crisis in Sudan, a spokesperson told CNN Tuesday.

“The State Department has established a Sudan Military Conflict Task Force to oversee the Department’s planning, management, and logistics related to events in Sudan,” the spokesperson said.

A notice about the taskforce went out to staff on Monday, sources said.

In recent days, intense fighting between the rival Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) broke out in Khartoum and spread further into the country, leaving hundreds dead and injured.

The State Department has urged American citizens to shelter in place, and US diplomats in Khartoum have also been sheltering in place. The US Embassy said on Tuesday that “due to the uncertain security situation in Khartoum and closure of the airport, there are no plans for US government-coordinated evacuation.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a press conference Tuesday that “yesterday we had an American diplomatic convoy that was fired on.”

“All of our people are safe and unharmed. But this action was reckless, it was irresponsible, and of course unsafe — a diplomatic convoy with diplomatic plates, a US flag, being fired upon,” he said at a press conference in Japan.

Both the SAF and RSF have said they are committed to a 24-hour ceasefire beginning on Tuesday evening local time, though there have been reports of gunfire after that ceasefire’s supposed start.

“We continue to press the RSF and SAF to establish a 24-hour ceasefire, and call on both to ensure all forces adhere to it,” the State Department spokesperson said.

Prior to the announcement of a ceasefire, Blinken called the heads of each of the rival factions to urge them to stop the fighting.

EJ Hogendoorn, who formerly served at the State Department as senior adviser to the US Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan, told CNN that his understanding is that US Ambassador to Sudan John Godfrey is also heavily engaged in talking to the parties even as he shelters in place in Khartoum.

“We have all kinds of systems established for him to be able to do so,” he said.

“In addition to trying to get them to de-escalate, I imagine that they must also be thinking about possible evacuation of staff and certainly the safety of their staff, trying to coordinate with other embassies,” Hogendoorn said.

Hogendoorn noted that the embassy compounds “are pretty self-sufficient for fairly long periods of time.”

“Unless there’s a full frontal assault on the US embassy compound, people are safe. I would imagine that they would want to have a presence for as long as is justifiable in an effort to try to help and to try to resolve the fighting,” he said.

‘Existential’ conflict

“The biggest challenge” for the US and its partners is that the conflict in Sudan “appears to be existential for the two parties,” so “it’s going to be very difficult to convince them that they need to stop,” Hogendoorn told CNN.

“There are indications that command and control is starting to deteriorate, especially for the RSF, so even if the United States is able to kind of put pressure on these people, they may not be able to actually stop the fighting quickly,” he added.

And with the fighting that has spread to other parts of the country, “there will be even less command and control of these forces,” he said.

Asked about what leverage the US has to pressure the sides to end the fighting, Hogendoorn said that the US could freeze bank accounts and revenue streams and “that would very quickly make it difficult for parties to continue to prosecute the fighting in a serious way,” but determining which accounts to go after could quickly get complicated.

“The State Department needs to seriously think about what do they need to do to end the fighting, not get all wrapped up as to who started the conflict, is one side the good guy and the other side, the bad guy. I think the goal needs to be to get the fighting to stop as quickly as possible and then ensure that whatever happens that that also positively influences the negotiations that undoubtedly will happen,” he said.

Blinken said Tuesday that the US is “in very close coordination with other countries that have influence in Sudan.”

“I’ve been on the phone with counterparts from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, to make sure that we’re coordinating carefully,” he said. “Our team as well has been in very close contact with the African Union, with other international organizations — again, to make sure that everyone is coordinated and that we are channeling the shared determination among the international community to get to a ceasefire as quickly as possible and to put Sudan back on the track of talks, negotiations, again, to restore civilian-led government in Sudan.”

Hogendoorn told CNN that “unless there is a more decisive intervention by international partners,” he is concerned that a “Syria-like scenario” could develop in Sudan “where different armed factions seize control over different parts of the country.”

“And it becomes very, very challenging to put the country back together or even to deliver sustained assistance to people who are just pawns in this struggle between these two generals,” he said.

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