Ceasefire negotiations between the two warring parties in Sudan, which are being held in Jeddah, have not made "much progress," a Saudi diplomat told AFP on Monday, while fighting continues Monday in Khartoum.

Since the outbreak of the confrontations on April 15th, the Sudanese capital has been witnessing a state of chaos resulting from the battles between the army led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces led by Muhammad Hamdan Dagalo, known as "Hemedti".

In response to a Saudi-American initiative, the two military commanders sent their representatives to the city of Jeddah on Saturday to hold talks that Washington and Riyadh described as "initial talks."

"The negotiations have not made much progress so far," a Saudi diplomat told AFP. He added, "A permanent ceasefire is not on the table. Each side believes that it is able to resolve the battle."

For the fourth week in a row, the five million residents of Khartoum stayed in their homes in light of the scarcity of water and food resources, amid panic and confusion from stray bullets.

"We hear the sounds of aerial bombardment coming from the market area in the city centre," a resident of southern Khartoum told AFP.

The Sudanese army stated earlier that its delegation to the negotiations "will only talk about the armistice and how to properly implement it to facilitate the arrival of humanitarian aid."

For its part, the United Nations and non-governmental organizations are trying, in the city of Port Sudan (east) on the Red Sea, to negotiate the delivery of aid to Khartoum and Darfur, where hospitals and humanitarian aid stores have been bombed or looted.

And on Sunday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, arrived in Jeddah with the aim of meeting representatives of the two parties to the conflict, but his role in the negotiations is not yet clear.

A spokeswoman for Griffiths said Sunday that he is seeking to discuss humanitarian issues related to Sudan.
A second UN official told AFP on Monday that Griffiths "requested to join the negotiations," noting that his request had not yet been approved.

The United Nations Human Rights Council will hold a meeting on May 11th to discuss the "impact" of the confrontations in Sudan "on human rights".

Experts believe that the war may drag on with the inability of either side to resolve it on the ground.

And the official Saudi Press Agency reported on Sunday that the Saudi monarch and crown prince directed the King Salman Relief Center to "provide various humanitarian aid worth $100 million" to provide relief, humanitarian and medical assistance to the displaced.

The battles that have been going on for more than three weeks have resulted in 750 dead and 5,000 wounded, according to the data of the Armed Conflict Location and Facts (ACLED), in addition to the displacement of 335,000 people and 117,000 refugees to neighboring countries.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry affirmed that Egypt has received "since the beginning of the crisis more than 57,000 Sudanese brothers, in addition to its contribution to the evacuation of more than four thousand foreign citizens."

The United Nations reported that 30,000 Sudanese fled to Chad and 27,000 to South Sudan.

The Jeddah talks come after a series of Arab and African regional initiatives, especially by the eastern countries of the continent through the IGAD Development Organization, which did not bear fruit.

The African Union is also seeking calm between the two parties, especially as it exhausted the last cards of pressure on Sudan by suspending its membership in 2021, after Al-Burhan, supported by Daglo, carried out a military coup in which civilians were removed from power.

Experts believe that there is a discrepancy in the support of regional powers for the two parties to the conflict in Sudan, as the UAE appears to be on the side of Dagalo, in contrast to Egypt, which supports the army, while Saudi Arabia stands at the same distance from the two generals.

During an emergency meeting Sunday of the Arab foreign ministers at the headquarters of the Arab League in Cairo, which dealt with the developments of the Sudanese file, the League's Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said that the negotiations between the two parties to the conflict "deserve support, and I repeat my appeal to hold on to this opportunity."

Aboul Gheit warned that the current conflict would turn into "a first round of war that would divide Sudan into rival regions and turn it into a battleground that threatens its existence."