The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group that has been at war with the Sudanese army for more than two years, announced today that it has agreed to a humanitarian ceasefire proposed by the US-led mediation group known as the Quad.
The agreement on the proposal came a week after the RSF captured the town of El Fasher, which had been under siege for more than 18 months. It is also the last stronghold of the Sudanese army in the western Sudanese region of Darfur.
"The Rapid Support Force also looks forward to the implementation of the agreement and the immediate start of talks on arrangements for the cessation of hostilities and the basic principles that will guide the political process in Sudan, in a way that will address the root causes of the conflict and end the suffering of the Sudanese people," RSF said in a statement.
A Sudanese military official told the AP that the military would only agree to a ceasefire if the RSF completely withdrew from civilian areas and handed over its weapons in accordance with previous peace proposals.
Masad Boulos, US adviser for African affairs, said the US is working with the Sudanese military and the RSF to reach a humanitarian ceasefire and that an announcement could be expected soon.
Boulos told the AP on Monday that both sides have been working on it for nearly 10 days in hopes of finalizing the details. The US-led plan calls for a three-month humanitarian ceasefire followed by a nine-month political process, he said.
The US is working with Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates - the so-called Quad - in an effort to end that war.
New waves of displacement in Sudan are causing alarm among aid agencies and local doctors who warn that the influx of people is putting additional pressure on already overcrowded camps struggling with insufficient resources.
Aid agencies have long said Sudan has one of the world's most alarming displacement crises, most recently when more people were displaced after the RSF captured El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur and the last stronghold of the Sudanese army, following a series of attacks by the group on the city, which had been under siege for more than a year.
The paramilitary group killed more than 450 people in a local hospital, according to the World Health Organization, and went from house to house killing people and committing sexual assaults.
The RSF-military war began in 2023 when tensions erupted between the two former allies who were supposed to oversee a democratic transition after a 2019 uprising. The fighting has killed at least 40.000 people, according to the World Health Organization, and displaced 12 million.
However, humanitarian organizations estimate that the true death toll could be many times higher.
Also more than 24 million people face acute food insecurity, according to the World Food Programme.
More than 70.00 people have fled El Fasher in just a week, according to the International Organization for Migration, joining hundreds of thousands of others already displaced in the region. Some of those who fled arrived in the North Country mostly on foot, taking unsafe routes, especially for women and girls.
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