Paramilitary RSF In Sudan Agrees To Proposed Truce After Over 2 Years Of War

CAIRO (AP) — The Rapid Support ForcesThe paramilitary group, which has been at war with the Sudanese army for more than two years, said on Thursday it had accepted a humanitarian ceasefire proposed by the US-led mediator group, also known as the Quad.

Agreement on the offer came a week after RSF captured al-Fasher The city has been under siege for over 18 months. It was also the last Sudanese military stronghold in Sudan’s western Darfur region.

“Rapid Support Forces also look forward to the implementation of the agreement and the immediate start of talks on the basic principles guiding the political process in Sudan and the arrangements for cessation of hostilities, in a way that will address the root causes of the conflicts and end the suffering of the Sudanese people,” RSF said in its statement. The statement was included.

A Sudanese military official told The Associated Press that the military would agree to a ceasefire only if the RSF completely withdraws from civilian areas and gives up weapons in line with previous peace proposals. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter.

Massad Boulos, US advisor for African affairs, said the US was working with the Sudanese army and RSF to broker a humanitarian ceasefire and could make an announcement “soon”.

“We had been working on this issue with both parties for almost 10 days and were hoping to finalize the details,” Boulos said in an interview with the AP on Monday. He said the US-led plan would begin with a three-month humanitarian ceasefire, followed by a nine-month political process.

The United States is working with Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates (the Quad) on ways to end the war.

New waves of displacement in Sudan are causing alarm among aid groups and local doctors, who warn that the influx of people is placing additional strain on already overcrowded camps struggling with scarce resources.

Community kitchens that provide a lifeline to many families are at risk of collapse, non-profit Islamic Relief warned on Thursday. A new study by the group found that 83% of families in eastern and western Sudan now lack adequate food.

On Wednesday, the Sudanese Doctors Network warned that humanitarian conditions were deteriorating in displacement camps west of al-Fasher, including Tawila, Kurma and Golo, and that there had been a significant increase in the number of displaced people, which has exceeded 36,000 in recent days.

Humanitarian organizations have long described Sudan as experiencing one of the most alarming displacement crises in the world. Recently, more people have been displaced following El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur and Sudan’s last military stronghold. passed by RSF after a series of attacks by the defecting group. common in the city It has been under siege for over a year.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the paramilitary group killed more than 450 people at a local hospital, carried out house-to-house killings and committed sexual assaults.

war between The RSF and the army began fighting in 2023, as tensions erupted between the two former allies who were supposed to oversee the democratic transition following the 2019 uprising. At least 40,000 people have died and 12 million have been displaced in the conflict, according to the World Health Organization. But aid groups say the real death toll could be many times higher. More than 24 million people also face acute food insecurity, according to the World Food Programme.

According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 70,000 people fled al-Fasher within a week; This number joins hundreds of thousands of people already displaced in the region. Some of those who escaped reached the Northern Province mostly on foot, a journey that was unsafe, especially for women and girls.

The influx of displaced people recently fled al-Fasher and reached the Al-Affad displacement camp in the Northern province’s Al-Dabbah town, about 350 kilometers from the capital Khartoum.

Many people who spoke to the AP this week described harrowing details of their escape from Al-Fasher. Othman Mohamed, a teacher who fled the city at the end of September, said he saw bodies strewn along the road and people collapsed from exhaustion and abuse during the journey.

He said he lives in crisis in Al-Fasher, where drones and artillery are frequently used and food is barely available. People generally survived on Ombaz until it became difficult to obtain at some point. Ombaz is what is left over from pressing peanut oil.

Rawda Mohamed, who walked for long hours to the El-Affad camp, said, “In El-Fasher, there is nothing but beating and killing using drones that you cannot see in the sky but hit you. The drone hits you without you feeling it.”