WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would work to help end the war in Sudan after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman asked him to get involved in the matter.
“We’ve already started working on that,” Trump said at a Saudi investment conference a day after he met with Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler at the White House.
Trump told the gathering, which was attended by bin Salman and his delegation, that his administration began working on the issue half an hour after the crown prince made the request during Tuesday’s meeting.
The United States will work with Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and other Middle Eastern countries to end atrocities in the region and stabilize Sudan, Trump later said in a social media post.
The Sudan conflict erupted in 2023 amid a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces ahead of a planned transition to civilian rule. It has caused ethnically charged bloodletting, widespread destruction and mass displacement, drawing in foreign powers and threatening to split Sudan.
The Saudi crown prince believes Trump’s direct pressure is needed to break a logjam in talks to end more than two and a half years of war, pointing to his work to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza last month, five people familiar with the matter said.
The Saudi ruler appeared to appeal to the U.S. president’s view of himself as a peacemaker, according to Trump’s account.
“He mentioned Sudan yesterday, and he said, ‘Sir, you’re talking about a lot of wars, but there’s a place on Earth called Sudan, and it’s horrible what’s happening,'” Trump said.
For Saudi Arabia, a resolution to the conflict is linked to national security, given hundreds of miles of Sudanese coastline lying opposite the kingdom’s Red Sea coast.
“Tremendous atrocities are taking place in Sudan,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “It has become the most violent place on Earth and, likewise, the single biggest Humanitarian Crisis. Food, doctors, and everything else are desperately needed.”
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, Bhargav Acharya, Doina Chiacu; editing by Costas Pitas and Deepa Babington)
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