Officials from across East Africa have started arriving in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa in the latest effort to mediate between the warring sides in Sudan.
The three month-long conflict has displaced around three million people and is threatening the stability of the entire region.
The Sudanese army and the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are expected to send representatives to the summit.
There are widespread reports of atrocities committed against the civilian population – especially by militias allied to the RSF in the Darfur region.
Several previous attempts at securing a ceasefire had limited success and the UN is now warning of a wider civil war.
Sudan’s military leader Lt Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan had said that he would not attend the summit after rejecting Kenya’s leadership of the peace efforts for allegedly lacking impartiality.
Kenya has previously pledged neutrality on the conflict, local media reports.