There would be no truce in Sudan in the Islamic holy month of Ramadan unless the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group leaves the homes and sites of civilians, senior Sudanese armed forces General Yasser al-Atta said on Sunday.
A man walks while smoke rises above buildings after aerial bombardment, during clashes between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the army in Khartoum North, Sudan, May 1, 2023. Reuters/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah
There would be no truce in Sudan in the Islamic holy month of Ramadan unless the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group leaves the homes and sites of civilians, senior Sudanese armed forces General Yasser al-Atta said on Sunday.
The statement follows an appeal by the United Nations Security Council for a truce during Ramadan, which begins this week. The paramilitary RSF said it welcomed the ceasefire call.
Atta's statement, issued on the army's official Telegram channel, cited recent military advances by the army in Omdurman, part of Sudan's wider capital.
It said there could be no Ramadan ceasefire unless the RSF complied with a commitment made in May last year at Saudi and U.S.-mediated talks in Jeddah to withdraw from civilian homes and public facilities.
It also said there should be no role for Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the RSF leader commonly known as Hemedti, in Sudan's future politics or military.
War between Sudan's army and the RSF erupted in mid-April 2023 amid tensions over a plan for transition to civilian rule. The two factions staged a coup in 2021 that derailed a previous transition following the 2019 overthrow of autocratic former leader Omar al-Bashir.
The army has been on the back foot militarily for much of the conflict. The RSF occupied large swathes of the capital in the first days of fighting.
The U.N. says nearly 25 million people - half Sudan's population - need aid, some 8 million have fled their homes and hunger is rising. Washington says the warring parties have committed war crimes.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has also urged a Ramadan truce.
Sudan's U.N. ambassador told the U.N. security council on Thursday that the head of the army and ruling council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan commended Guterres' appeal, but was wondering how it could be implemented.
Sudan's foreign ministry, which is aligned with the armed forces, said that for any ceasefire appeal to be successful, the RSF would need to withdraw from areas including El Gezira and Sennar states and several cities in Darfur, the RSF's stronghold.
Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz, Clauda Tanios and Aidan Lewis
Human Rights Watch has accused an Abu Dhabi-based security company of recruiting Colombian private military contractors and deploying them to fight alongside Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF) between 2024 and 2025, adding to what the rights group describes as a growing body of evidence of Emirati military support for the paramilitary group.
Farmers across Sudan say the hike in global fuel and fertilizer costs resulting from the Iran conflict will force them to cut back on planting this summer, restricting food production in a country where war has caused acute hunger.
At least nine people were killed and six others injured when a four-storey building collapsed overnight in the Moroccan city of Fez, about 200 kilometres (124 miles) east of Rabat, local authorities said on Thursday.
To make this website run properly and to improve your experience, we use cookies. For more detailed information, please check our Cookie Policy.
Necessary cookies enable core functionality. The website cannot function properly without these cookies, and can only be disabled by changing your browser preferences.