The United States this month convened talks in Geneva aimed at ending the brutal war that has triggered one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, achieving progress on aid access but not a ceasefire.

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who have been accused of numerous abuses including in Darfur, agreed to a code of conduct that includes pledges to refrain from violence against women and destruction of crops.

"These new commitments must be reflected in the actions of RSF troops on the ground, who have committed ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity since the outbreak of war against Sudanese civilians," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement Monday.

Tom Perriello, the US negotiator on Sudan, said that the United States has also presented the proposal to the army, which unlike the RSF did not show up in Switzerland.

"They have the code of conduct in front of them. We hope to get a response from them in the coming days," Perriello told reporters on Tuesday.

He said that the commitment by the RSF chief, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, needed to be enforced with rank-and-file troops.

"The goal is not to get a signature on a piece of paper," Perriello said.

"It's to get the conduct changed so that we're not seeing rape and sexual slavery used as a weapon of war, we're not seeing the kind of exploitation and harassment at checkpoints, we're not seeing the kind of indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas, including hospitals and homes," he said.

The conflict that erupted in April 2023 has killed tens of thousands, forced one in five Sudanese from their homes and brought acute hunger to more than 25 million people -- more than half the population.