Madar (Geneva) - The UN Secretary-General's Personal Envoy for Sudan, Pekka Haavisto, said on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, that there is "no military solution" to the war in Sudan, after the Sixth Consultative Meeting on Enhancing Coordination of Peace Initiatives and Efforts in Sudan, co-chaired by the UN and Switzerland in Geneva, UN News and AFP reported.
Twenty-one countries and five international organisations took part, including the Quad (the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt), the five permanent members of the Security Council and neighbours such as Ethiopia and Chad. The warring parties, the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces, were not represented, as the mechanism is reserved for mediators.
Haavisto said the UN was trying to introduce "confidence-building measures" both sides could agree on, such as a possible exchange of prisoners of war and military and civilian detainees, and facilitating student exams, while admitting these were "baby steps compared with the terrible destruction that is happening".
In a statement, participants said they were gravely concerned about reports of atrocities and the escalation in drone warfare, rejected the establishment of parallel governments and urged foreign states to refrain from fuelling the war through mercenaries, military equipment, drones and financial support. "The war in Sudan has become a drone war; it kills mostly civilians," said Swiss State Secretary Alexandre Fasel, noting that almost 34 million people need humanitarian support.
Previous meetings of the mechanism were held in Cairo, Djibouti, Nouakchott (December 2024) and Brussels. A seventh is planned, with no date or venue set. The war between the army and the RSF, which began in April 2023, has killed more than 200,000 people according to aid workers' estimates and displaced more than 13 million.
