Africa

Sudan war: Army general rejects call for Ramadan ceasefire

Members of the Sudanese armed popular resistance, which backs the army, parade in the streets of Gedaref in eastern Sudan on March 3, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict in Sudan between the army and paramilitaries. (Photo: AFP)

By Hanifa Adan | Sunday, March 10, 2024

Lieutenant-General Yasir Al-Atta says the military and the people cannot agree to a truce dictated by others and that the RSF must leave civilian sites.

The Sudanese army's assistant commander-in-chief has publicly rejected calls for a ceasefire with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group during the holy month of Ramadan, saying they must leave civilian sites.

In a speech on Saturday to graduating Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) forces in Kassala, Lieutenant-General Yasir Al-Atta said the military and the people would not agree to a truce dictated by others.

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On Friday, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) urged both sides in Sudan's ongoing conflict to cease hostilities before Ramadan. The fighting, which has persisted for 11 months in Khartoum, Darfur, Kordofan, and Al-Jazira, has caused a severe humanitarian crisis.

The RSF said in a statement that it hoped the resolution adopted by the UNSC would help deliver crucially needed humanitarian assistance to millions of Sudanese trapped in the fighting across the Northeastern African country.

Al-Atta outlined specific conditions for a truce: the RSF's withdrawal from occupied cities in Darfur and Kordofan, their departure from Khartoum, and the handover of military equipment, honouring the agreement made in May last year at Saudi and US-mediated talks in Jeddah.

He 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.

The negotiations would begin once their fighters were gathered in six cantonment sites, three in Khartoum and three in Darfur, to which RSF troops would relocate and surrender their weapons.

The 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.