RSF rebels announce three-month truce in Sudan despite army rejecting US peace plan

“On the basis of our responsibility and in response to international efforts led by the (peace) initiative of US President Donald Trump, (…) we announce a three-month humanitarian truce,” promised Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, alias Hemedtin a speech broadcast on the group’s channels.

The United States, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Saudi Arabia – called the Quartet – earlier this month proposed a plan to a three-month truce followed by peace talks. The RSF responded by stating that they had accepted the plan, but shortly afterwards they attacked military territory with a barrage of drones.

This Monday’s announcement now seems to mean a unilateral ceasefire. However, it comes a day after the head of the Sudanese Army rejected the peace plan and criticized the inclusion of the United Arab Emirates, accused of arming the RSF, as mediators.

During his speech, General Abdelfatah al Burhan denounced that the project is intended to weaken his troops and would allow the paramilitaries to maintain a good part of the territory they have conquered. “Nobody in Sudan will accept the presence of these rebels nor that they are part of any solution in the future,” he said, denying accusations of Islamist influence in his Government.

Al Burhan added, however, that he is open to the peace efforts of the US and Saudi Arabia, and claimed to have given the mediators a “road map” with his conditions to stop the war, among which he highlighted the withdrawal of the FAR from the cities and excluding the UAE from the Quartet for Sudan for its “help to the rebels.”

The Government of Khartoum has called the RSF announcement “political maneuver which flatly contradicts the harsh reality of the atrocities committed by its forces on the ground.

The RSF’s promise comes at a time when the paramilitaries have come under heavy criticism and international condemnation for the brutal attacks against civilians – from cold-blooded murders to rape of women and girls – after the capture of the city of Al Fasher at the end of October, a conquest that consolidated its control of the Darfur region. They have subsequently intensified attacks against the Kordofan region in an attempt to take control of the country.

Hemedti, leader of the paramilitaries, insisted that the three-month truce has the objective of “reinforcing security for civilians, facilitating the arrival of aid and giving a ray of hope to the people.” Likewise, it committed to protecting the convoys and warehouses of aid sent to the victims and displaced people, to facilitate the access of humanitarian personnel to areas affected by the conflict and to cooperate with the UN and humanitarian organizations.

The war in Sudan broke out on April 15, 2023 and since then tens of thousands of people have died, more than 13 million have been forced to leave their homes and more than half of the African country’s population faces levels of acute food insecurityaccording to the United Nations.

This situation has turned the country into the scene of the worst humanitarian and displacement crisis on the planet, and both the US and the UN accuse both parties to the conflict of committing war crimes.