SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Multiple sources - US says distrust between Sudanese parties makes direct talks impossible, urges independent investigation for military crackdown.

14/6/19: Multiple sources – US says distrust between Sudanese parties makes direct talks impossible, urges independent investigation for military crackdown.

• Reuters, by Aidan Lewis

• Washington Post, by Paul Schemn

 US Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Tibor Nagy said that outside mediation is needed to defuse Sudan’s crisis, because the ruling military council and opposition distrust each other too deeply for direct talks following the June 3 massacre.

 Nagy met opposition groups and civil society as well as military council head Abdelfattah Al Burhan. He said that they differed on key points, and the US said the massacre “constituted a 180 degree turn in the way events were going, with murder, rape, pillaging by members of the security forces.”

 Nagy also said that the accounts of victims they spoke to were “harrowing and very persuasive.”

Nagy said the US believes an “independent and credible” investigation is needed, “to figure out what exactly happened, why it happened, who gave the orders, how many victims there were.”