The United States special envoy to Sudan has made his first trip to the African nation, hoping to bring an end to a horrific war and boost relief to millions of people in need.

After being appointed Washington’s ambassador to Sudan in February, Tom Perriello visited Port Sudan, the army-led government’s de facto capital on the Red Sea coast.

For the first time since the evacuation of the U.S. embassy in April 2023 due to the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a top U.S. official visited the nation.

“We feel an enormous amount of urgency to end this crisis and to ensure that we can … help to get food and medicine and life-saving support to the 20 million people plus that are in need,” a State Department official said before the trip.

Over 25 million people, or half of Sudan’s population, require help, according to the U.N., as hunger has spread to one area and over 11 million people have abandoned their homes.

Sudan’s sovereign council stated in a statement that Perriello spoke with tribal, government, and humanitarian figures in addition to Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country’s army head.

During what the council described as a “lengthy, comprehensive, and frank” discussion, the two men talked about how to provide humanitarian help and how to end the war through a political process.

“The U.S. envoy presented several suggestions which the head of the sovereign council agreed to,” the statement said.

Although the army declined to join U.S.-mediated peace negotiations in Geneva earlier this year, the meetings did obtain commitments from the warring parties to increase access to aid.

A power battle between the army and the RSF preceded a planned shift to civilian government, which is why the conflict broke out more than a year ago.

Perriello discussed “the need to cease fighting, enable unhindered humanitarian access, including through localized pauses in the fighting to allow for the delivery of emergency relief supplies, and commit to a civilian government,” a State Department statement said.

“Right now, I think there’s a key opportunity to build on the expansion of humanitarian aid,” the State Department official stated, emphasising the need for relief corridors to the most battle-ravaged areas, such as al-Fashir, Sennar, and parts of the capital Khartoum, even though the U.S. would continue to pursue a more comprehensive ceasefire and negotiations.

Last Monday, Sudan’s sovereign council announced that it would prolong the temporary opening of the Adre border crossing with Chad. According to relief organisations, this crossing is essential for delivering food and other supplies to famine-prone portions of the Darfur and Kordofan regions.

An RSF official stated at a press conference in Nairobi that while they were still amenable to peace, they had doubts about the army’s readiness.

“They do not listen to any language but that of the rifle, and so we will continue to talk to them in the language they understand,” said Brigadier General Omar Hamdan.

Thousands of Nigeriens demonstrated in the streets on Saturday and Sunday in support of the ruling CNSP and in opposition to alleged foreign interests to destabilise it.

Following reports that police had detained a French “spy,” a coalition of civil society organisations had called for a demonstration.

Many demonstrators also expressed support for the governments of Mali and Burkina Faso. The Alliance of Sahel States, or AES, is made up of Niger and these two nations.

“On the 17th of September, I was in Bamako when they tried to destabilize Mali [Editor’s Note: a deadly terror attack shook Mali’s capital on that day]. But that was not enough for them, they tried to destabilize Ibrahim Traoré in Burna Faso. That is why we are sending a strong message to all those imperialists. Know that we are standing by our military. We are with our security forces,” Mohamed said.

Colonel Ibro Amadou Bacharou, the President’s Chief of Staff, was among the members of the junta government known as the CNSP who participated in the march. Some students and their various unions were also part of the demonstration.

The protest was held in more general charges of French conspiracies to topple the government that overthrew Mohamed Bazoum and directed the evacuation of US and French forces.

“Losing Niger is a great catastrophe for France,” Abdourahamane, a civil society leader says.

“They were not going to stand still, and look are us leave. They will do everything to come back but our chance is that we’re much more aware than our grandparents. Today, Africans master the tool of information so they cannot manipulate us anymore.”

The demonstrators acknowledge that achieving sovereignty will take time. They made two demands of the nation’s leaders: economic and military progress.

“Will they be able to colonize us once again?” Mohamed Elkebir Souleymane, the main organizer asked, “No,” a cheerful crowd responded.

“In that case, in the next ten years, the CNSP has to be able to build weapons that will defend us, among other priorities. We must be able to build the tanks we will use to fight. Industrial units have to be built. You need to develop the economy,”

Niger is one of five West African countries under a military dictatorship as in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Guinea but the juntas appear popular in these states as many consider overthrown civil governments as puppets of foreign powers— an impression that is seen in several recent anti-France demonstrations in the region.