Sudan needs an exceptional humanitarian endeavour to end its horrific civil war | Mukesh Kapila

The country's traumatised people are desperate for a new approach to end atrocities and famine in beleaguered country

Jeddah, Cairo, Addis Ababa - and now Geneva - are choice settings for a growing business: talking peace for Sudan. But whatever the venue, one deal seems impossible to broker: getting all the key players together at the same time and in the same place. Instead, fighting intensifies as diplomats shuttle between stakeholders unwilling to sit in the same room.

The reasons are clear. The belligerents - the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) of GenAbdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (known as Hemedti) - are not ready for peace. Well armed and resourced by external sponsors, each thinks they can win. Especially when winning means establishing future hegemony and monopolising the country's riches.

Mukesh Kapila is a former UN official and current emeritus professor at the University of Manchester